LINCOLN  ROOM 

UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS 
LIBRARY 


MEMORIAL 

the  Class  of  1901 

founded  by 

HARLAN  HOYT  HORNER 

and 
HENRIETTA  CALHOUN  HORNER 


PRESIDENT   LINCOLN'S   ATTITUDE 


TOWARDS 


WITH  A   REVIEW    OF  EVENTS   BEFORE   AND 
SINCE  THE  CIVIL  WAR 


BY  HENRY  W.  WILBUR 


PHILADELPHIA,  PA. 

Published  by  Walter  H.  Jenkins,  140  North  Fifteenth  Street 
1914 


Copyrighted  in  1914  by 
Henry  W.  Wilbur 


l73.7Z.d3 
67 


TO  THE  MEMORY  OF  MY  GRAND-PARENTS, 

JOB  AND  ESTHER  WILBUR, 

MY  PARENTS. 

HUMPHREY  AND  ANN  PIERCE  WILBUR, 

AND   THE    GREAT   COMPANY   OF   PLAIN  PEOPLE,  WHO  LABORED    FOR 
THE  FREEDOM  OF  A  RACE,  AS  IN  THEIR  DAY  THEY  SAW  THE  LIGHT, 

THIS  VOLUME  IS  DEDICATED. 


CONTENTS 


Foreword 7 

Slavery  in  the  Colonies 10 

Under  the  Constitution 15 

Invoking  the  Letter  of  the  Law 20 

Lincoln's  Early  Convictions 27 

Lincoln  and  the  Douglas  Debates 32 

Anti-Slavery  Sentiment  Before  the  War  ....  39 

The  Period  of  Attempted  Conciliation 43 

Slavery  the  Confederacy's  Cornerstone 49 

Congress  and  Slavery  Before  Emancipation.  54 

Slavery  and  the  Army 60 

Approaching  Emancipation   65 

Laboring  with  Lincoln 70 

Lincoln  and  Horace  Greeley 75 

Continued  Urging  and  Arguing 80 

More  Incidents  Regarding  the  Proclamation .  86 

The  Proclamation  of  Freedom 93 

The  Proclamation's  Reception  99 

Loyal  Opinion 104 

Page  Five 


Page  Six 

Before  and  After  Emancipation 109 

The  Message  of  1862 114 

The  Final  Proclamation 119 

Two  Kinds  of  Critics 124 

The  Pro-Slavery  Element  in  Evidence 130 

Lincoln's  Mainstay  Was  the  People 134 

Lincoln  and  Reconstruction 140 

Secession  and  Reconstruction   148 

Before  the  "Carpet-baggers" 155 

Just  Before  Sunset 160 

The  Religiously-minded  Lincoln  165 

The  Reconstruction  Amendment 173 

Following  the  Amendment 178 

The  Aftermath 183 

Nullifying  the  Constitution 187 

Discrimination  in  Education  195 

The  Negro  and  the  Land 202 

The  Conclusion  of  the  Matter  .  .  209 


FOREWORD 

It  is  nearly  half  a  century  since  the  untimely 
death  of  President  Lincoln,  and  during  all  these 
years  he  has  steadily  grown  in  popular  favor.  Be- 
cause of  his  having  come  from  the  ranks  of  the 
common  people,  plus  the  crown  of  martyrdom 
forced  upon  him,  he  probably  appeals  to  the  gen- 
eral imagination  more  than  any  other  man  in  our 
history.    In  a  nation-wide  referendum  for  the  se- 
lection of  the  typical  American,  it  is  likely  Lin- 
coln would  receive  a  large  majority.     But  any 
attempt  to  make  him  out  a  sort  of  superman  would 
be  unjust  to  his  character.    It  is  easy  to  imagine 
with  what  fine  scorn  and  apt  stories  he  would 
repel  any  attempt  to  place  him  on  a  pedestal  and 
Hellenize  him  as  a  demigod.    It  is  therefore  with 
an  intensely  human  Lincoln  that  we  wish  to  deal. 
The  original  purpose  in  making  this  book  was 
simply  to  consider  the  evolution  of  Lincoln's  mind 
in  approaching  the  emancipation  proclamation, 
with  such  personal  estimates  of  his  contempora- 
ries as  would  show  the  manner  and  method  of  the 
man  as  he  dealt  with  the  great  problem,  the  solu- 
tion of  which  was  committed  to  him.    The  study 
of  the  case,  however,  grew  in  interest  as  we  pro- 
ceeded. Since  the  work  was  begun  conditions  have 
developed  in  our  country  which  seem  to  demand 
that  the  case  be  brought  down  to  date,  rather  than. 

Page  Seven 


Page  Eight 

stop  with  the-  close  of  the  civil  war  and  the  death 
of  Lincoln.  If  the  period  before  emancipation, 
and  the  events  which  belong  to  it,  were  impor- 
tant in  an  effort  to  understand  the  issue  which  cul- 
minated with  the  rebellion,  then  what  has  been 
going  on  since  that  time  must  be  considered  to 
make  the  story  complete. 

All  that  the  act  of  emancipation  could  possibly 
do,  no  matter  how  accomplished,  was  to  simplify  *" 
the  problem,  for  it  surely  did  not  solve  it.  If  it 
shall  appear  as  we  proceed  that  the  writer  has  a 
firm  conviction  that  the  fruits  of  our  unfortunate 
civil  war  should  be  preserved  in  fortifying,  ex- 
tending and  perpetuating  the  benefits  and  bless- 
ings of  free  government,  he  hopes  that  the  case 
may  be  presented  "without  bitterness. 

While  the  personal  estimates  of  Lincoln  made 
by  his  cotemporaries  were  slightly  conflicting  at 
certain  points,  it  should  be  said  that  the  general 
character  of  this  first-hand  evidence  is  singularly 
united  touching  the  temper  and  motive  of  his  con- 
duct. Moral  sincerity,  and  a  fixed  purpose  to.  so 
save  and  fortify  free  government  that  it  should 
"not  perish  from  the  earth,"  was  undoubtedly  the 
center  of  his  purpose.  For  the  sake  of  this  great 
undertaking  he  was  willing  to  hold  sentiment  in 
abeyance,  and  heavily  tax  the  sympathy  and  en- 
durance of  a  most  tender  spirit.  Hence  we  shall 
endeavor  to  so  present  the  varied  estimates  of  the 
men  of  his  time,  that  a  correct  conclusion  regard- 
ing the  real  Lincoln  may  be  reached.  If,  when  the 
evidence  is  all  in,  it  shall  appear  that  touching 


Page  Nine 

all  the  questions  involved,  from  the  freedom  of 
the  slaves  to  the  reconstruction  of  the  states  in 
rebellion,  Lincoln  was  really  ahead,  rather  than 
behind,  the  major  public  sentiment  of  his  time, 
his  real  greatness  will  be  more  plainly  apparent. 

Idealist,  and  almost  prophet  and  poet,  he  knew 
how  to  meet  the  real  world  on  its  own  ground,  and 
how  much  of  his  idealism  could  be  worked  in  the 
life  of  men  and  in  a  scheme  of  national  progress 
which  should  be  human  enough  to  belong  to  this 
world,  and  virile  enough  to  stand  on  its  feet.  In 
the  midst  of  all  of  his  experiences,  his  deeply  reli- 
gious nature  will  be  constantly  seen  in  command 
of  even  his  wit  and  his  wisdom,  as  he  went  about 
the  severe  task  which  confronted  him.  Lincoln 
understood  the  spiritual  values,  and  because  of 
that  understanding  he  developed  into  a  construc- 
tive statesman  of  the  first  rank. 

With  the  hope  that  the  facts  and  opinions  herein 
set  forth  may  result  in  making  President  Lincoln 
better  understood,  the  valuable  work  he  did  for 
his  country  in  the  hour  of  its  greatest  peril  more 
keenly  appreciated,  and  the  lesson  of  his  life  an 
increasing  inspiration  to  his  countrymen,  we  send 
this  volume  on  its  way. 


SLAVERY  IN  THE  COLONIES 

No  adequate  understanding  of  the  institution  of 
slavery  in  its  relation  to  the  general  government, 
and  especially  as  it  involved  the  country  in  a  civil 
war,  in  whose  fiery  furnace  the  institution  died, 
is  possible  without  some  knowledge  of  its  growth, 
and  the  ways  and  means  by  which  it  secured  con- 
stitutional recognition. 

There  seems  to  be  little  doubt  that  if  the  ma- 
jority of  the  fathers  and  founders  of  the  republic 
could  have  formed  a  more  perfect  union,  and 
framed  a  constitution  entirely  after  their  own 
hearts,  provision  would  have  been  made  for  the 
gradual  removal  of  slavery  from  our  country.  In 
fact,  the  opinion  was  rather  general  in  the  period 
immediately  following  the  revolution,  that  in  the 
main  slavery  was  not  economically  profitable, 
while  it  was  held  to  be  morally  inconsistent  with 
the  genius  of  republican  institutions.  It  was  a 
minority  of  the  fathers  who  forced  the  fatal  com- 
promise which  perpetuated  the  institution,  which 
was  to  prove  a  millstone  about  the  Nation's  neck. 

At  the  time  of  the  adoption  of  the  Constitution, 
slavery  existed  and  was  a  legalized  institution  in 
every  state  in  the  Union,  Massachusetts  excepted. 
In  the  census  of  1790  there  were  less  than  4,000 
slaves  in  New  England,  two-thirds  of  the  number 
being  in  Connecticut.  The  states  of  New  York, 
New  Jersey  and  Pennsylvania  contained  36,484 
human  chattels,  Pennsylvania  having  only  3,737. 

Page  Ten 


Page  Eleven 

Slavery  ceased  in  all  of  these  states  long  before 
the  civil  war.  At  the  time  indicated  the  slaves 
in  Delaware  and  Maryland  numbered  111,923, 
103,036  of  this  number  being  held  in  servitude  in 
the  latter  state.  The  following  represents  the 
number  of  slaves  in  the  four  states  of  the  original 
thirteen  which  sided  with  the  Confederacy  in  the 
civil  war. 

Virginia 293,427 

North  Carolina 100,372 

South  Carolina  107,094 

Georgia  29,264 


520,357 

As  the  number  of  slaves  in  the  entire  country  in 
1790  was  reported  as  657,527,  it  will  be  seen  that 
about  80  per  cent,  of  the  slaves  were  in  the  four 
states  which  in  1861  joined  hands  with  the  South- 
ern Confederacy. 

The  Ninth  Continental  Congress,  in  session  in 
Annapolis,  considered  a  plan  for  the  government 
of  "the  territory  ceded  already,  or  to  be  ceded,  by 
the  individual  states  to  the  United  States." 
Thomas  Jefferson  introduced  what  has  passed  into 
history  as  the  Ordinance  of  1784.  The  ordinance 
among  other  things  provided  "That  after  the  year 
1800  of  the  Christian  era,  there  shall  be  neither 
slavery  nor  involuntary  servitude  in  any  of  the 
said  states."  This  ordinance  failed  of  adoption 
because  an  affirmative  vote  of  a  majority  of  the 
states  was  not  recorded.  Had  New  Jersey  been 


Page  Twelve 

fully  represented  and  voted  as  New  York  and 
Pennsylvania  did,  the  ordinance  would  have  been 
carried.  South  Carolina,  Virginia  and  Maryland 
voted  against  the  ordinance,  and  the  vote  of  North 
Carolina  was  divided.  Thus  early  did  the  fathers 
attempt  to  provide  for  the  non-extension  of  slave 
territory. 

In  1787  the  last  Continental  Congress  assembled 
in  New  York,  and  at  the  same  time  the  convention 
which  had  been  called  to  frame  a  constitution  for 
all  of  the  states,  was  deliberating  in  Philadelphia. 
This  Congress  adopted,  by  practically  unanimous 
vote,  the  Ordinance  of  1787.  Its  sixth  article 
contained  the  non-extension  of  slavery  clause,  of 
the  defeated  ordinance  considered  three  years  be- 
fore. 

The  Constitutional  Convention  met  behind 
closed  doors,  and  no  official  record  of  its  detailed 
deliberations  exists.  Still,  reliable  evidence  indi- 
cates that  early  in-  its  sessions,  South  Carolina 
and  Georgia  appeared  to  make  demands  in  behalf 
of  some  recognition  of  slavery.  Such  recognition 
appeared  in  three  places,  and  in  as  many  ways  in 
our  Fundamental  Law.  It  is  suggestive,  however, 
that  neither  the  words  slave  or  slavery  appear 
in  the  immortal  document.  Nothing  more  surely 
illustrates  the  fact  that  even  in  1787  the  question 
was  not  a  pleasant  one  to  consider.  The  minds 
of  the  fathers  seem  to  have  been  set  at  ease  by  the 
compromises  which  made  the  ratification  of  the 


Page  Thirteen 

Constitution  by  the  requisite  number  of  states  pos- 
sible. 

From  the  political  standpoint  the  most  valuable 
concession  to  slavery  in  the  Constitution  was  the 
provision  which  made  the  slave  population  a  basis 
of  representation  in  Congress,  in  the  following 
terms : 

"Representatives  and  direct  taxes  shall  be  apportioned 
among  the  several  States  which  may  'be  included  within 
this  Union  according  to  their  respective  numbers,  which 
shall  be  determined  by  adding  the  whole  number  of  free 
persons,  including  those  bound  to  service  for  a  term,  of 
years,  and  excluding  Indians  not  taxed,  three-fifths  of  all 
other  persons." 

"Three-fifths  of  all  other  persons"  covered  the 
slaves,  and  gave  an  added  numerical  strength  to 
the  slave  states  in  the  popular  branch  of  Con- 
gress. 

What  was  section  9  of  Article  I  in  the  original 
draft  of  the  Constitution  contained  a  veiled  en- 
dorsement of  the  slave  trade  in  the  following 
language : 

"The  Migration  or  Importation  of  such  Persons  as  any 
of  the  States  now  existing  shall  think  proper  to  admit, 
shall  not  be  prohibited  by  the  Congress  prior  to  the  Year 
one  thousand  eight  hundred  and  eight,  but  a  tax  or  duty 
may  be  imposed  on  such  Importation,  not  exceeding  ten 
dollars  for  each  person."  1 

history  of  the  Celebration  of  the  One  Hundredth  Anniver- 
sary of  the  Promulgation  of  the  Constitution  of  the  United 
States.  By  Hampton  L.  Carson,  Vol.  I,  p.  244.  The  words 
capitalized  in  the  quotation  are  as  they  appear  in  the  original 
manuscript  of  the  Constitution. 


Page  Fourteen 

The  third  concession  to  South  Carolina  and 
Georgia  appeared  in  Section  3,  of  Article  IV : 

"No  person  held  to  service  or  labor  in  one  State,  under 
the  laws  thereof,  escaping  into  another  shall,  in  conse- 
quence of  any  law  or  regulation  therein,  be  discharged 
from  such  service  or  labor,  but  shall  be  delivered  up  on 
claim  of  the  party  to  whom  such  service  or  labor  may  be 
due." 

This  is  the  part  of  the  Constitution  called  the 
slave-catching  provision  which  met  the  severe 
condemnation  of  the  abolitionists. 


UNDER  THE  CONSTITUTION 

In  1789  immediately  following  the  adoption  of 
the  Constitution,  North  Carolina  proposed  to  cede 
her  outlying  territory,  which  later  became  the 
State  of  Tennessee,  to  the  Federal  Union.  Before 
the  transfer  of  this  territory  Congress  was  re- 
quired to  accept  the  following  condition:  "Pro- 
vided always,  that  no  regulation  made,  or  to  be 
made,  by  Congress,  shall  tend  to  emancipate 
slaves." 

Three  years  later  Georgia  proceeded  to  make 
over  to  the  General  Government  territory  belong- 
ing to  her,  out  of  which  the  states  of  Alabama  and 
Mississippi  were  eventually  formed.  It  was  stipu- 
lated that  the  specified  territory  should  be  organ- 
ized into  states,  according  to  the  provisions  of  the 
Ordinance  of  1787,  with  this  proviso,  "the  article 
only  excepted  which  forbids  slavery."  Congress 
acceded  to  this  demand,  and  two  new  slave  states 
were  thus  carved  out  of  territory  which  the 
Ordinance  of  1787  dedicated  to  freedom.  Follow- 
ing these  comparatively  easy  victories,  a  cam- 
paign was  begun  to  divide  and  organize  Indiana 
territory,  now  comprising  the  states  of  Indiana, 
Illinois,  and  Michigan,  on  the  basis  of  tolerated 
slavery,  but  the  attempt  failed,  and  slavery 
aggression  was  suspended  until  the  purchase  of 
Louisiana  from  France,  when  an  added  impulse 
was  furnished  to  the  slave  interest. 

Page  Fifteen 


Page  Sixteen 

But  something  happened  more  important  than 
the  purchase  of  territory,  or  the  suspension  of 
ordinances  guaranteeing  freedom,  viz. :  the  inven- 
tion of  the  cotton-gin  by  Eli  Whitney.  That  made 
cotton  growing  a  most  profitable  type  of  agricul- 
ture and  gave  to  slavery  its  immense  mercenary 
footing.  From  this  time  on,  the  struggle  between 
the  forces  of  freedom  and  slavery  became  more 
and  more  intense.  The  moral  conscience  touching 
the  peculiar  institution  rapidly  deteriorated,  as 
the  seeming  profit  in  slave  labor  increased. 
Churches  which  hoped  and  resolved  against 
slavery  lapsed  into  silence,  as  the  jingling  of  the 
dollar  healed  the  hurt  which  conscience  felt. 
Horace  Greeley,  referring  to  resolutions  against 
the  institution  adopted  by  a  Southern  church  con- 
vention sagely  remarked  that  "No  similar  declara- 
tion has  been  made"  by  any  church  south  of  the 
Mason  and  Dixon  line,  "since  field  hands  rose  to 
$1,000  each,  and  black  infants  at  birth,  were 
accounted  worth  $100."  J 

The  territory  of  Missouri,  comprising  all  the 
purchase  from  France,  except  the  state  of  Louisi- 
ana, came  up  for  consideration  when  part  of  the 
territory  knocked  for  admission  into  the  Union 
as  a  state  in  1818.  Over  the  petition  the  storm 
raged  furiously.  As  it  progressed  many  surprises 
developed.  Thomas  Jefferson,  in  spite  of  the  fact 
that  he  was  the  author  of  the  non-extension  Ordi- 

*The  American  Conflict,  Vol.  I,  p.  120. 


Page  Seventeen 

nance  of  1784,  gave  the  full  weight  of  his  influence 
to  slavery  extension,  as  did  ex-President  Madison. 
The  outcome  of  the  controversy  was  the  Missouri 
Compromise  which  is  here  given: 

"And  be  it  further  enacted,  That  in  all  that  Territory 
ceded  by  France  to  the  United  States,  under  the  name  of 
Louisiana,  which  lies  north  of  thirty-six  degrees  thirty 
minutes  north  latitude,  excepting  only  such  part  thereof  as 
is  included  within  the  limits  of  the  State  contemplated  by 
this  act,  Slavery  and  involuntary  servitude,  otherwise  than 
in  the  punishment  of  crime,  whereof  the  party  shall  have 
been  duly  convicted,  shall  be  and  is  hereby  forever  pro- 
hibited." 

Missouri  was  thus  admitted  as  a  slave  state 
in  1820,  with  the  territory  to  the  South  of  thirty- 
six  degrees  North  latitude  open  to  the  peculiar 
institution,  and  all  North  of  that  line  ordained 
to  freedom. 

In  1845,  President  Polk  suggested  that  a  treaty 
of  peace  might  be  negotiated  with  Mexico,  pro- 
vided it  carried  with  it  an  appropriation  for 
securing  land  beyond  the  existing  national 
boundary.  The  real  object  was,  of  course,  more 
territory,  and  larger  opportunity  for  the  expan- 
sion of  slavery.  While  this  effort  was  pending, 
David  Wilmot,  a  member  of  the  House  of  Repre- 
sentatives of  Pennsylvania,  and  at  that  time  a 
Democrat  in  politics,  introduced  the  proviso 
which  made  his  name  historic.  This  paragraph, 
inserted  in  the  bill,  was  as  follows: 

"Provided,  That,  as  an  express  and  fundamental  condi- 
tion to  the  acquisition  of  any  territory  from  the  Republic 


Page  Eighteen 

of  Mexico  by  the  United  States,  by  virtue  of  any  treaty 
that  may  be  negotiated  between  them,  and  to  the  use  by 
the  Executive  of  the  moneys  herein  appropriated,  neither 
Slavery  nor  involuntary  servitude  shall  ever  exist  in  any 
part  of  said  territory,  except  for  crime,  whereof  the  party 
shall  first  be  duly  convicted." 

The  Wilmot  Proviso  contained  the  gist  of  the 
whole  attempt  to  prevent  the  extension  of  slave 
territory.  While  it  passed  the  House,  it  failed 
in  the  Senate,  and  the  bill  which  carried  it  never 
became  a  law.  Probably  no  like  number  of 
words,  shorn  of  all  legal  or  applied  value,  ever 
occupied  a  place  of  such  importance  as  this  pro- 
viso did  in  the  history  of  American  legislation. 

The  compromises  of  1850,  introduced  in  the 
Senate  by  Henry  Clay,  revived  the  whole  question 
of  slavery,  and  strengthened  that  institution,  es- 
pecially by  repealing  all  provision  for  restricting 
slave  territory,  by  enacting  the  Fugitive  Slave 
Law,  and  pledging  abstinence  of  the  abolition  of 
slavery  in  certain  sections  of  the  country.  These 
compromises,  ugly  as  they  were  in  many  respects, 
from  the  anti-slavery  standpoint,  were  pretty 
generally  accepted  by  public  opinion,  North  and 
South.  A  false  sense  of  security  settled  over  the 
country,  in  the  opinion  that  these  compromises 
settled  the  slavery  question,  while  as  a  matter  of 
fact  they  only  intensified  the  "irrepressible  con- 
flict." 

Nothing  served  more  to  intensify  the  disturb- 
ing issue  of  slavery  than  the  Kansas-Nebraska 


Page  Nineteen 

bill.  This  was  a  measure  for  organizing  the 
region  westward  of  Missouri  and  Iowa,  into  two 
territories  to  be  known  as  Kansas  and  Nebraska. 
Stephen  A.  Douglas,  then  Senator  from  Illinois, 
at  this  point  devised  a  plan  for  dealing  with 
slavery  in  new  territories  which  became  popularly 
known  as  "squatter  sovereignty."  In  other  words, 
the  plan  provided  that  all  matters  "pertaining  to 
slavery  in  the  territories,  and  in  the  new  states 
to  be  formed  therefrom,  are  to  be  left  to  the  deci- 
sion of  the  people  residing  therein,  through  their 
appropriate  representatives."  It  was  generally 
admitted  that  the  Kansas-Nebraska  bill  repealed 
the  Missouri  Compromise,  and  all  the  free  terri- 
tory in  the  country  was  handed  over  to  the  tender 
mercies  of  such  settlers  as  might  be  induced  to 
enter  a  state,  and  stay  long  enough  to  vote. 

Out  of  this  plan  grew  the  bloody  struggles  in 
Kansas,  the  details  of  which  do  not  belong  in  this 
story.  The  Kansas-Nebraska  bill  undoubtedly 
furnished  the  final  logical  reason  for  the  organiza- 
tion of  the  National  Republican  party,  with  the 
non-extension  of  slave  territory  as  its  dominant 
issue.  As  the  party's  first  successful  candidate 
for  President,  from  1860  until  the  end,  Abraham 
Lincoln  became  the  moral  and  political  storm- 
center  of  the  slavery  controversy. 


INVOKING  THE  LETTER  OF  THE  LAW 

The  Union  had  barely  become  an  established 
fact,  when  the  slave  power  proceeded  to  make 
the  supposed  constitutional  guarantees  given  to 
slavery  effective  by  law.  In  1793,  a  bill  was 
passed  by  Congress  to  facilitate  the  capture  of 
fugitive  slaves.  This  law  contained  four  provi- 
sions. It  guaranteed  the  right  to  arrest  the  fugi- 
tive when  found.  This,  in  many  cases,  amounted 
to  arrest  on  suspicion,  and  on  the  unsupported 
assertion  of  the  alleged  owner.  The  law  also  con- 
ferred the  right  to  take  the  fugitive  before  a 
magistrate  when  he  was  arrested.  It  made  it  the 
duty  of  the  magistrate  to  examine  the  case,  and 
commit  the  alleged  slave  to  the  custody  of  the 
master.  The  right  of  the  master  to  remove  the 
fugitive  from  the  jurisdiction  wherein  he  was 
found,  was  also  upheld. 

It  was  not  an  uncommon  thing  for  runaway 
slaves  to  be  arrested  under  the  provisions  of  this 
act  of  Congress.  With  the  growth  of  the  Aboli- 
tion Movement  attempted  escapes  became  more 
frequent,  and  the  branches  of  the  Underground 
Railroad  made  successful  escape  increasingly 
possible.  The  provisions  of  the  Fugitive  Slave 
Laws  did  not  stop  the  attempt  of  slaves  to  secure 
their  freedom,  and  there  was  an  increasing  re- 
vulsion in  the  North  against  every  man  being 
constituted  a  possible  slave-hunter. 

Page  Twenty 


Page  Twenty-one 

A  good  deal  of  partial  history  has  been  written 
about  the  non-enforcement  of  the  statute  of  1793, 
and  the  so-called  compromise  act  of  1850.  This 
non-enforcement  has  been  given  as  a  cause  of  the 
civil  war  by  a  distinguished  historian  and  pub- 
licist : 

"It  seemed  evident  to  the  southern  men,  too,  that  the 
North  would  not  pause  or  hesitate  because  of  constitutional 
guarantees.  For  twenty  years  northern  States  had  been 
busy  passing  'personal  liberty'  laws,  intended  to  bar  the 
operation  of  the  federal  statutes  concerning  fugitive  slaves, 
and  to  secure  for  all  alleged  fugitives  legal  privileges  which 
the  federal  statutes  withheld.  More  than  a  score  of  States 
had  passed  laws  with  this  object,  and  such  acts  were  as 
plainly  attempts  to  nullify  the  constitutional  action  of  Con- 
gress as  if  they  had  spoken  the  language  of  the  South 
Carolina  ordinance1  of  1832."  2 

This  statement  sounds  plausible,  and  might 
really  be  so,  if  there  was  no  difference  between 
a  tax  for  the  support  of  the  General  Government, 
and  a  demand  for  the  return  of  men  and  women 
to  an  unnatural  bondage.  But  the  facts  of  the  case 
are  that  the  slave-catchers  frequently  appre- 
hended persons  upon  whom  no  valid  claim  under 
the  law  rested.  Several  states  had  provided  that 
the  residence  of  a  slave  within  their  borders  for 
a  specified  time,  with  the  knowledge  of  his 

1This  ordinance  was  passed  by  a  convention  held  after  the 
passage  of  the  National  tariff  bill  in  1832,  and  resolved  that 
no  duties  would  be  paid  into  the  National  treasury  in  South 
Carolina  after  February  1,  1833. 

'Division  and  Reunion.  By  Woodrow  Wilson,  Ph.D.,  LL.D., 
p.  208.  Vol.  Ill  of  Epochs  of  American  History. 


Page  Twenty-two 

master,  made  him  a  free  man.  Persons  of  this 
sort  were  liable  to  be  apprehended,  and  dragged 
back  into  slavery. 

The  above  statement  by  President  Wilson  un- 
doubtedly represents  the  extreme  southern  view 
regarding  what  was  called  northern  nullification, 
representing  a  supposed  provoking  aggressive- 
ness on  the  part  of  the  free  states.  But  the  provo- 
cation was  not  one-sided.  In  this  particular  let 
us  summon  another  southern-born  man  as  a  wit- 
ness, as  follows: 

"The  southern  leaders  in  Washington  forced  gag  rules 
through  Congress  to  keep  out  abolitionist  petitions.  They 
suborned  the  postal  service  to  their  ends  and  got  abolitionist 
literature  debarred  from  the  mails.  They  invaded  the 
North  and  dragged  slaves  back  to  their  plantations.  They 
browbeat  liberty  men  in  Congress.  They  hanged  John 
Brown.  Whenever  they  failed  to  crush  out  abolitionism, 
it  was  because  there  was  in  the  nature  of  things  no  way 
to  reach  it,  not  because  Northern  public  men  kept  them 
from  having  their  will  upon  it."  3 

This  is  a  mild  and  truthful  statement  of  what 
happened  during  this  period,  such  as  the  brutal 
attack  upon  Charles  Sumner  in  the  Senate  Cham- 
ber, by  Representative  Preston  S.  Brooks,  of 
South  Carolina,  in  1856,  and  the  Border  Ruffian 
outrages  in  Kansas.  Both  sides  were  intense,  and 
both  did  things  not  wise  and  generally  not  gentle. 
The  South  was  much  more  militant  than  the 

"The  Lower  South  in  American  History.  By  William  Garrott 
Brown,  p.  98.  Prof.  Brown  was  born  in  Alabama  in  1868,  and 
is  connected  with  Harvard  University. 


Page  Twenty-three 

North,  and  more  used  to  blood-letting,  so  that  as- 
saults upon  the  person  like  the  murder  of  Elijah  P. 
Love  joy,4  by  a  pro-slavery  mob  at  Alton,  Illinois, 
was  pretty  universally  monopolized  by  the  advo- 
cates and  representatives  of  the  slave  power. 

For  a  complete  understanding  of  the  issue 
raised  in  this  chapter,  it  is  worth  while  to  find  out 
just  what  the  Fugitive  Slave  Law,  and  the  so- 
called  Personal  Liberty  Laws  were.  The  Fugitive 
Slave  Law  of  1850  was  surely  a  sample  of  misfit 
legislation  in  a  republic.  While  the  Constitution 
of  our  country  provided  for  trial  by  jury  in  all 
suits  at  common  law  when  the  value  in  contro- 
versy exceeded  twenty  dollars,  an  issue  involving 
the  freedom  of  men,  women  and  children,  was  com- 
mitted to  a  single  United  States  commissioner,  en- 
dowed with  absolute  and  arbitrary  power,  and 
from  whose  decision  there  could  be  no  appeal. 
Heavy  penalties  were  imposed  on  American  free- 
men who  might  be  instrumental  in  rescuing  or 
concealing  a  runaway  slave,  or  directly  or  indi- 
rectly aiding  his  escape.  The  penalty  for  such  an 
exhibition  of  humanity  was  a  fine  not  exceeding 
one  thousand  dollars,  and  imprisonment  not  ex- 
ceeding six  months.  In  addition  civil  damages 


*A  clergyman,  a  native  of  the  State  of  Maine,  who  went  to 
St.  Louis,  and  edited  a  religious  newspaper,  in  which  he  opposed 
the  barbarisms  of  slavery.  To  escape  persecution  he  moved  hia 
naner  to  Alton,  Illinois,  where  he  was  most  viciously  treated. 
His  plant  was  destroyed  and  a  new  press  was  secured.  In 
defending  his  property  against  a  pro-slavery  mob,  he  was  shot 
and  killed,  November  7,  1837. 


Page  Twenty-four 

might  be  collected  by  the  injured  slave-holder  to 
the  amount  of  one  thousand  dollars  for  each  slave 
thus  assisted  to  escape.  The  claimant  might 
arrest  a  fugitive  and  take  him  before  a  magistrate 
without  process.  In  hearing  the  case  the  testi- 
mony of  the  alleged  slave  was  not  admitted,  the 
most  interested  party  being  ignored.  A  bribe 
of  five  dollars  in  the  open  palm  was  offered  to 
each  commissioner  if  he  would  only  return  the 
alleged  fugitive  to  slavery,  for  this  law  provided 
a  fee  of  five  dollars  to  the  magistrate  if  he  pro- 
nounced the  defendant  a  free  man,  while  he  re- 
ceived ten  dollars  if  he  was  adjudged  a  slave.  It 
may  be  noted  that  when  the  matter  of  a  few  run- 
away slaves  was  involved,  the  southern  dogma 
of  state  rights  was  thrown  out  of  the  window, 
and  the  National  Government  was  urged  to  enter 
a  state,  and  arbitrarily  over-ride  its  sovereignty. 
The  only  possible  warrant  for  considering  this 
sample  monstrosity  in  legislation  the  "constitu- 
tional action  of  Congress,"  is  the  Dred  Scott 
decision  rendered  by  the  Supreme  Court  in  1857. 
This  decision  affirmed  that  neither  a  negro  slave, 
nor  the  descendant  of  such  slave,  could  be  a  citi- 
zen of  the  United  States,  and  therefore  such  per- 
son had  no  right  of  action  in  a  Federal  Court.  In 
the  expressive  language  of  the  time  the  decision 
held  that  a  colored  man  had  no  rights  which  a 
white  man  was  bound  to  respect,  not  even  the 
right  to  the  possession  and  protection  of  his  own 
body,  if  any  white  man  disputed  his  claim. 


Page  Twenty-five 

That  the  Fugitive  Slave  Law  was  considered 
constitutional  in  the  fifties,  and  was  possibly  ac- 
cepted by  a  majority  of  American  citizens  may 
be  true,  but  that  any  man  during  the  past  forty 
years  could  refer  to  its  provisions  with  approval, 
only  shows  how  slow  has  been  the  progress  of 
our  humane  perceptions. 

The  so-called  Personal  Liberty  Laws  were 
purely  local  statutes,  and  were  mainly  for  local 
protection.  They  began  to  appear  in  the  forties, 
and  were  partly  called  into  being  by  a  Supreme 
Court  decision  handed  down  in  1842,  which  was 
particularly  favorable  to  slave-catchers  and  their 
arbitrary  rights.  Laws  of  this  sort  were  amended 
and  strengthened  after  the  passage  of  the  Fugi- 
tive Slave  Law  in  1850.  Fourteen  northern  states 
had  laws  which  the  sensitive  slave-power  of  the 
South  claimed  militated  against  slaveholders' 
rights,  and  sought  their  economic  ruin. 

In  the  main  the  Personal  Liberty  Laws  pro- 
hibited the  use  of  the  local  legal  machinery  for 
the  capture  of  fugitive  slaves.  For  instance,  they 
forbid  the  employment  of  the  local  jails  or  the 
local  officials  in  the  slave  hunting  business;  and 
provided  protection  for  negroes  hunted  by  kid- 
nappers. iSuch  a  conservative  newspaper  as  the 
National  Intelligencer,  of  Washington,  a  paper 
always  favorable  to  slavery,  said  that  the  pro- 
visions of  these  laws  were  not  unconstitutional. 
The  late  Vice-President  Henry  Wilson,  in  refer- 
ring to  laws  of  this  character  passed  in  Massachu- 


Page  Twenty-six 

setts,  said  that  they  were  "not  designed  to  defeat 
her  constitutional  obligations,  or  to  interfere 
with  the  execution  of  even  the  Fugitive  Slave  Act, 
but  simply  to  protect  her  own  inhabitants."  5 

The  importance  of  these  laws  has  been  greatly 
exaggerated,  as  has  the  damage  done  to  slavery 
on  account  of  the  venturesome  slaves  who  did  not 
fancy  the  paternal  and  patriarchial  system  under 
which  they  were  held  in  bondage,  and  who  either 
attempted  to  run  away  or  succeeded  in  doing  so. 
In  the  year  1860  only  20  slaves  escaped  from 
South  Carolina,  and  119  ran  away  from  their 
masters  in  Kentucky  during  the  same  period.8  The 
non-enforcement  of  the  Fugitive  Slave  Laws  by 
the  North,  because  of  the  slight  uncertainty  it 
threw  upon  slave  property,  was  no  cause  for  try- 
ing to  dissolve  the  Union.  It  was  a  false  cry  of 
"stop  thief,"  to  deceive  the  unwary,  and  stimul- 
late  sympathy  for  secession. 


"Rise  and  Fall  of  the  Slave  Power  in  America.     By  Henry 
Wilson,  Vol.  Ill,  p.  79. 

•Abraham   Lincoln ;    A  History.     By   John   G.   Nicolay   and 
John  Hay.     Vol.  Ill,  p.  31. 


LINCOLN'S  EARLY  CONVICTIONS 

It  is  never  easy  to  locate  actual  beginnings  of 
any  sort,  and  it  is  doubly  difficult  to  say  just  when 
real  convictions  began  to  shape  themselves  in  the 
minds  of  even  concerned  and  serious  men.  Re- 
garding Lincoln's  mind  on  the  slavery  question 
the  above  statement  is  particularly  applicable. 
On  this  point  his  biographers  say: 

"There  have  been  several  ingenious  attempts  to  show  the 
origin  and  occasion  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  anti-slavery  convic- 
tions. They  seem  to  us  an  idle  waste  of  labor.  These  senti- 
ments came  with  the  first  awakening  of  his  mind  and  con- 
science, and  were  roused  into  active  life  and  energy  by  the 
sight  of  fellow-creatures  in  chains  on  an  Ohio  River  steam- 
boat, and  on  the  wharf  at  New  Orleans."  x 

In  spite  of  this  exhortation,  it  may  be  worth 
while  to  trace  some  of  the  steps  by  which  Lincoln 
was  progressively  led  to  take  a  stand  against  a 
"domestic  institution"  apparently  so  thoroughly 
safeguarded  as  to  be  immovable.  It  would  seem 
that  his  mind  was  first  stirred  on  the  slavery 
question  by  close  observation  of  the  institution  in 
action. 

Lincoln  and  his  friend  John  Hanks  went  on  a 
commercial  expedition  by  flat-boat  to  New  Or- 
leans in  1836.  The  statement  by  Hanks  of  the 
influence  of  this  experience  on  his  companion  is 

Abraham  Lincoln ;  A  History.  By  John  J.  Nicolay  and 
John  Hay.  Vol.  I,  p.  74. 

Page  Twenty-seven 


Page  Twenty-eight 

quoted  by  Mr.  Lincoln's  biographers  with  ap- 
proval, and  may  be  considered  authentic.  We  are 
told  that  in  New  Orleans  they  saw  for  the  first 
time 

"Negroes  chained,  maltreated,  whipped  and  scourged. 
Lincoln  saw  it;  his  heart  bled;  said  nothing;  was  silent; 
looked  bad;  was  thoughtful  and  abstracted.  I  can  say, 
knowing  it,  that  it  was  on  this  trip  that  he  formed  his 
opinion  of  slavery.  It  ran  its  iron  into  him  then  and 
there,  May,  1831.  I  have  heard  him  say  so  often  and 
often."  2 

Lincoln  was  then  twenty-seven  years  old. 
Three  years  later  he  was  elected  a  member  of  the 
Illinois  legislature,  to  which  body  he  was  subse- 
quently twice  re-elected.  It  was  during  his  sec- 
ond legislative  term  that  he  had  occasion  to  pro- 
test against  too  much  sympathy  with  slavery  on 
the  part  of  his  colleagues.  Passing  resolutions  in 
support  of  the  institution  was  a  popular  pastime 
in  the  law-making  bodies  of  many  states.  Illinois 
proceeded  to  join  the  legislative  chorus  in  a  series 
of  resolutions  against  abolition  societies,  and  in 
reiteration  of  the  extra-constitutional  privileges 
enjoyed  by  slave  holders.  Lincoln  drew  up  a  pro- 
test against  the  action  of  the  majority.  His 
friend,  Dan  Stone,  about  to  quit  active  politics 
for  the  bench,  signed  the  document  with  its 
author,  but  no  other  office  holder  in  Illinois  de- 
veloped a  like  courage.  In  this  protest  Lincoln 

'The  same,  p.  72. 


Page  Twenty-nine 

said  that  he  "believed  the  institution  of  slavery 
was  founded  both  on  injustice  and  bad  policy." 
Such  an  utterance  was  not  popular  with  the  pub- 
lic opinion  of  his  constituents  in  Sangamon 
County  in  1836.  There  was  apparently  no  reason 
for  this  deliverance  against  slavery  but  the  honest 
conviction  of  the  man  who  made  it.  That  Lincoln 
was  re-elected  to  the  legislature  after  this  episode 
proves  that  he  was  always  personally  more  popu- 
lar than  the  cause  he  represented  as  a  candidate. 

The  period  from  the  close  of  his  legislative 
career  in  Illinois  to  the  year  1846  seems  to  have 
been  politically  unproductive,  although  it  was  un- 
doubtedly a  time  of  preparation.  In  the  latter 
year  Lincoln  was  elected  a  representative  to  Con- 
gress, defeating  his  Democratic  opponent,  Peter 
Cartright,  the  celebrated  Methodist  preacher. 
Lincoln  was  the  only  Whig  representative  from 
Illinois  in  the  Thirtieth  Congress.  He  allied  him- 
self with  the  opponents  of  the  Mexican  war,  and 
thus  invited  the  hostility  of  the  slave  power,  then 
insinuatingly  when  not  insultingly  maintaining  a 
dominating  influence  in  the  National  law-making 
body. 

Lincoln  had  scarcely  got  his  bearings  in  the 
House,  when  an  attempt  was  made  to  give  the 
Fugitive  Slave  Law  of  1793  greater  efficiency  and 
certainty  in  the  District  of  Columbia.  Various 
resolutions  pro  and  con  were  submitted,  and 
finally  Mr.  Lincoln  introduced  an  amendment  to 


Page  Thirty 

the  pending  measure.  One  of  its  provisions  was 
compensated  emancipation  in  the  District,  sub- 
ject to  a  referendum  in  which  all  white  male 
citizens  of  voting  age  were  to  decide  the  question. 
The  sixth  section  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  measure  pro- 
vided more  effective  machinery  for  the  capture 
and  rendition  of  fugitive  slaves  apprehended  in 
the  District  of  Columbia.  Having  this  measure 
in  mind,  when  Lincoln  was  nominated  for  Presi- 
dent in  1860,  Wendell  Phillips  vehemently  de- 
nounced the  candidate  as  "the  slave  hound  of 
Illinois."  It  should  be  said  in  explanation,  if  not 
in  extenuation  of  Lincoln's  act,  that  at  no  time 
did  he  doubt  that  the  slave  holder  was  entitled  to 
the  protection  of  the  government  for  his  slave 
property  where  the  institution  was  already 
established. 

About  1851  Lincoln  replied  to  a  letter  received 
from  his  friend  Joshua  Speed.  Reading  between 
the  lines  of  this  correspondence  the  conclusion  is 
warranted  that  Speed  had  charged  his  friend 
with  waning  interest  in  the  cause.  If  tnere  was 
any  reason  for  this  inference,  it  would  simply 
indicate  that  the  Great  Emancipator  had  not  en- 
tirely escaped  the  moral  "sleeping  sickness" 
touching  the  slavery  question  which  afflicted  the 
whole  country  following  the  compromise  meas- 
ures of  1850.  Lincoln's  letter  is  a  most  important 
document  as  a  self -revelation  of  the  movement  of 
his  mind,  and  the  impelling  motive  which  formed 


Page  Thirty-one 

the  basis  of  his  interest  in  the  cause  of  freedom. 
Mr.  Lincoln  thus  wrote : 

"In  1841  you  and  I  had  a  tedious  low-water  trip  on  a 
steamboat  from  Louisville  to  St.  Louis.  You  may  remem- 
ber, as  I  well  do,  that  from  Louisville  to  the  mouth  of  the 
Ohio  there  were  on  board  ten  or  a  dozen  slaves  shackeled 
together  with  irons.  That  sight  was  a  continual  torment 
to  me,  and  I  see  something  like  it  every  time  I  touch  the 
Ohio  or  any  other  slave  border.  It  is  not  fair  for  you  to 
assume  that  I  have  no  interest  in  a  thing  which  has,  and 
continually  exercises,  the  power  of  making  me  miserable."3 

This  personal  admission  may  well  introduce  us 
to  that  strenuous  time  in  the  later  fifties,  when 
Lincoln  really  put  on  the  harness  of  service  and 
sacrifice  for  freedom,  only  to  be  put  off  when 
death  overtook  him. 

"The  same,  pp.  73-74. 


LINCOLN  AND  THE  DOUGLAS  DEBATES 

The  rising  tide  in  Lincoln's  affairs  which  led 
on  to  political  fortune,  appeared  in  the  series  of 
debates  with  Stephen  A.  Douglas  in  1858,  the 
prize  in  the  contest  being  the  position  of  United 
States  Senator  from  Illinois.  Lincoln  lost  the 
honor,  although  he  had  more  votes  in  the  state 
than  his  opponent.  The  trouble  was  gerrymand- 
ered legislative  districts,  which  gave  the  Demo- 
crats more  votes  in  the  Legislature  than  the  Re- 
publicans. Lincoln  intimated  to  his  friends  dur- 
ing the  contest  that  he  was  gunning  for  bigger 
game  than  the  Senatorship,  alluring  as  that  was. 
Whether  or  not  he  had  the  Presidency  in  mind,  he 
won  it  very  largely  because  of  these  debates  and 
their  aftermath  of  discussion  which  took  him  to 
Ohio,  New  York  and  New  England. 

During  these  debates  Lincoln's  personal  po- 
litical philosophy  was  presented  with  command- 
ing force,  and  in  attractive  form.  In  addition,  he 
expounded  the  creed  of  the  new  Republican  party 
with  a  vigor  and  logic  which  was -not  equalled  by 
any  of  the  advocates  of  the  new  cause.  There 
were  those  who  willingly  admitted  Lincoln's  abil- 
ity to  convince  the  rough  and  ready  western  mind, 
who  doubted  that  he  could  score  a  like  success 
when  dealing  with  the  supposably  keener  eastern 
intellect.  But  the  doubters  and  the  critics  were 

Page  Thirty-two 


Page  Thirty-three 

silenced  when  in  the  Cooper  Union  Speech  in  New 
York  City,  and  the  later  one  at  New  Haven,  under 
the  droppings  of  Yale  University,  captains  of  in- 
dustry and  finance  in  Gotham,  and  the  cultured 
college  men  in  New  England  alike  surrendered  to 
the  genius  of  the  uncouth  rail-splitter  from  the 
West. 

Mr.  Lincoln  was  unanimously  chosen  the  Re- 
publican candidate  for  Senator  from  Illinois,  at 
a  convention  which  met  in  Springfield,  June  26, 
1857.  He  addressed  this  convention  in  the  most 
carefully  prepared  speech  he  had  ever  delivered  in 
which  he  dealt  with  the  dominant  and  collateral 
issues  of  the  campaign.  The  following  extract  is 
probably  the  best  known  of  any  utterance  by  Lin- 
coln, only  excepting  the  Gettysburg  speech: 

"If  we  could  first  know  where  we  are  and  whither  we 
are  tending,  we  could  better  judge  what  to  do  and  how  to 
do  it.  We  are  now  far  into  the  fifth  year  since  a  policy 
was  initiated  with  the  avowed  object  and  confident  promise 
of  putting  an  end  to  slavery  agitation.  Under  the  opera- 
tion of  that  policy,  that  agitation  has  not  only  not  ceased, 
but  has  constantly  augmented.  In  my  opinion  it  will  not 
cease  until  a  crisis  shall  have  been  reached  and  passed.  A 
house  divided  against  itself  cannot  stand.  I  believe  this 
Government  cannot  endure  permanently  half  slave  and 
half  free.  I  do  not  expect  the  Union  to  be  dissolved — I  do 
not  expect  the  house  to  fall — but  I  do  expect  it  will  cease  to 
be  divided.  It  will  become  all  one  thing  or  all  the  other. 
Either  the  opponents  of  slavery  will  arrest  the  further 
spread  of  it,  and  place  it  where  the  public  mind  shall  rest 

5 


Page  Thirty-four 

in  the  belief  that  it  is  in  course  of  ultimate  extinction; 
or  its  advocates  will  push  it  forward,  till  it  shall  become 
alike  lawful  in  all  the  states,  old  as  well  as  new — North 
as  well  as  South."1 

Lincoln  believed  every  word  he  uttered.  Every 
point  in  this  extract  is  as  clear  as  language  can 
make  it.  The  country  must  become  either  all 
slave  or  all  free.  He  was  willing  to  stake  his  all 
on  such  practical  conduct  as  would  ultimately 
make  it  all  free.  That  remained  his  position  to 
the  end,  even  though  he  made  saving  the  Union 
more  important  than  securing  freedom.  He  be- 
lieved that  with  the  Union  saved,  ultimate  free- 
dom for  a  united  country  was  possible.  On  the 
other  hand  with  the  Confederacy  triumphant,  and 
a  severed  Union  as  a  result,  slavery  would  sit  en- 
throned in  the  South,  backed  by  an  oligarchy  more 
potent  to  preserve  the  institution  than  the  south- 
ern leaders  had  been  in  the  old  Union. 

In  1858,  William  H.  Seward  made  his  famous 
speech  in  Rochester,  N.  Y.,  in  which  he  referred 
to  slavery  as  the  "irrepressible  conflict."  He  also 
made  a  statement  very  much  like  Lincoln's  quoted 
above.  Under  pressure  he  sought  to  qualify  and 
tone  down  his  utterance,  a  thing  which  Lincoln 
refused  to  do.  When  he  took  a  stand  or  made  a 
statement,  it  was  after  careful  deliberation,  in 
which  he  went  over  all  of  the  ground.  Having 


Abraham    Lincoln :   A   History.     By   John   G.   Nicolay   and 
John  Hay.     Vol.  II,  p.  136. 


Page 

thus  taken  a  position  he  maintained  it  with  con- 
sistency and  constancy. 

In  one  of  the  debates  with  Douglas,  Mr.  Lincoln 
criticised  his  antagonist  because  of  an  implied,  if 
not  confessed  indifference  regarding  slavery 
itself,  in  which  he  said : 

"He  may  say  he  doesn't  care  whether  an  indifferent  thing 
is  voted  up  or  down,  but  he  must  logically  have  a  choice 
between  a  right  thing  and  a  wrong  thing.  He  contends 
that  whatever  community  wants  slaves  has  a  right  to  have 
them.  So  they  have,  if  it  is  not  a  wrong.  But  if  it  is  a 
wrong,  he  cannot  say  people  have  a  right  to  do  wrong.  He 
says  that,  upon  the  score  of  equality,  slaves  should  be 
allowed  to  go  into  a  new  territory  like  other  property. 
This  is  strictly  logical,  if  there  is  no  difference  between 
it  and  other  property.  If  it  and  other  property  are  equal, 
his  argument  is  entirely  logical.  But  if  you  insist  that 
one  is  wrong  and  the  other  right,  there  is  no  use  to 
institute  a  comparison  between  right  and  Wrong.  You  may 
turn  over  everything  in  the  Democratic  policy  from  be- 
ginning to  end — whether  in  the  shape  it  takes  on  the 
isitatute-book,  in  the  shape  it  takes  in  the  Dred  Scott 
decision,  in  the  shape  it  takes  in  conversation,  or  in  the 
shape  it  takes  in  short  maxim-like  arguments — it  every- 
where carefully  excludes  the  idea  that  there  is  anything 
wrong  in  it.  That  is  the  real  issue.  That  is  the  issue  that 
will  continue  in  this  country  when  these  poor  tongues  of 
Judge  Douglas  and  myself  shall  be  silent.  It  is  the  eternal 
struggle  between  these  two  principles,  right  and  wrong, 
throughout  the  world.  They  are  the  two  principles  that 
have  stood  face  to  face  from  the  beginning  of  time,  and 
will  ever  continue  to  struggle.  The  one  is  the  common 
right  of  humanity ;  and  the  other,  the  divine  right  of  kings. 
It  is  the  same  principle  in  whatever  shape  it  develops 
itself.  It  is  the  same  spirit  that  says,  'You  work  and  toil 


Page  Thirty-six 

and  earn  bread,  and  I'll  eat  it.'  No  matter  in  what  shape 
it  comes,  whether  from  the  mouth  of  a  king  who  seeks  to 
bestride  the  people  of  his  own  nation  and  live  by  the  fruit 
of  their  labor,  or  from  one  race  of  men  as  an  apology  for 
enslaving  another  race,  it  is  the  same  tyrannical  prin- 
ciple." 3 

It  was  common  before  the  war,  for  pro-slavery 
sympathizers  and  agitators  to  talk  about  the  op- 
ponents of  slavery  marrying  negroes,  and  they 
considered  that  personal  insult  a  knock-down  ar- 
gument against  emancipation.  Mr.  Lincoln  thus 
paid  his  respects  to  an  assault  of  this  kind : 

"Now  I  protest  against  the  counterfeit  logic  which  con- 
cludes that  because  I  do  not  want  a  black  woman  for  a 
slave  I  must  necessarily  want  her  for  a  wife.  I  need  not 
have  her  for  either.  I  can  just  leave  her  alone.  In  some 
respects  she  certainly  is  not  my  equal;  but  in  her  natural 
right  to  eat  the  bread  she  earns  with  her  own  hands,  with- 
out asking  leave  of  any  one  else,  she  is  my  equal  and  the 
equal  of  all  others." " 

In  these  statements  Mr.  Lincoln  reiterates  his 
constant  position  about  "natural  rights."  A  good 
many  men  and  women  to-day  have  not  reached  his 
position,  whenever  the  rights  of  a  so-called  in- 
ferior race  are  involved.  And  yet  there  can  be 
no  progress  towards  a  reasonable  economic  and 
political  freedom  unless  the  Lincoln  standard  is 
maintained. 


2  Quoted  by  George  S.  Boutwell  in  Reminiscences  of  Abraham 
Lincoln,  pp.  117-18. 

'Abraham    Lincoln:    A   History.     By   John   G.   Nicolay  and 
John  Hay.     Vol.  II,  p.  88. 


Page  Thirty-seven 

In  the  debate  at  Freeport,  Illinois,  August  2, 
1858,  Mr.  Lincoln  answered  certain  questions  that 
had  been  asked  him  by  Douglas,  one  related  to  his 
position  regarding  the  abolition  of  slavery  in  the 
District  of  Columbia,  and  the  other  as  to  the  right 
and  power  of  Congress  to  pass  and  enforce  a  Fu- 
gitive Slave  Law.  Touching  the  first  question  he 
said: 

"I  believe  that  Congress  possesses  the  constitutional 
power  to  abolish  it.  Yet  as  a  member  of  Congress,  I 
should  not,  with  my  present  views,  be  in  favor  of  endeav- 
oring to  abolish  slavery  in  the  District  of  Columbia,  unless 
it  would  be  upon  these  conditions:  First,  that  the  aboli- 
tion should  be  gradual;  second,  that  it  should  be  on  a  vote 
of  a  majority  of  the  qualified  voters  of  the  District;  and 
third,  that  compensation  should  be  made  to  unwilling 
owners.  With  these  three  conditions,  I  confess  that  I 
would  be  exceedingly  glad  to  see  Congress  abolish  slavery 
in  the  District  of  Columbia,  and,  in  the  language  of  Henry 
Clay,  'sweep  from  our  Capital  that  foul  blot  upon  our 
nation.'  " 

Referring  to  the  right  of  Congress  to  assist  the 
slave  holder  in  catching  his  runaway  human  prop- 
erty, Mr.  Lincoln  thus  expressed  himself: 

"Under  the  constitution  of  the  United  States,  the  people 
of  the  South  are  entitled  to  a  Congressional  Fugitive  Slave 
Law.  It  should  have  been  framed  so  as  to  be  free  from 
some  of  the  objections  that  pertain  to  it,  without  lessening 
its  efficiency." 

It  would  seem  that  we  have  quoted  enough  of 
the  words  of  Lincoln  to  definitely  show  his  posi- 
tion on  the  slavery  question.  He  believed  in  and 


Page  Thirty-eight 

desired  freedom  for  all  men.  But  he  was  equally 
certain  that  slavery  was  a  Constitutional  institu- 
tion, and  while  it  remained  so  slaveholders  had 
rights  of  protection  which  the  government  was 
bound  to  accord.  He  was  not  an  abolitionist,  and 
beyond  the  clear  conviction  that  the  extension  of 
slavery  could  be  prevented  and  prohibited  in  the 
territories,  in  complete  accord  with  the  Supreme 
Law  of  the  land,  he  had  no  plan  for  its  abolition, 
other  than  by  and  with  the  consent  of  the  slave- 
holders, when  he  assumed  the  office  of  President 
of  the  United  States. 

That  his  mind  progressed  surely,  if  slowly,  in 
the  direction  of  freedom,  as  the  events  of  the  war 
period  helped  to  rapidly  make  history,  will  be 
amply  shown  by  the  evidence.  His  moral  and 
mental  attitude  regarding  the  "great  iniquity" 
reached  its  climax  in  the  Emancipation  Proclama- 
tion, and  its  spiritual  interpretation  in  the  Last 
Inaugural. 


ANTI-SLAVERY  SENTIMENT  BEFORE  THE 
WAR 

In  an  attempt  to  make  plain  the  task  confront- 
ing President  Lincoln  in  connection  with  emanci- 
pation, even  as  a  war  measure,  it  is  necessary  to 
ask  and  answer  the  following  question :  What  was 
the  real  anti-slavery  strength  of  the  country  in 
1860?  In  the  main  the  present  generation  is  in- 
clined to  fancy  that  the  free  States  were  rather 
solidly  anti-slavery  before  the  Civil  War.  But 
such  was  not  the  case. 

Measuring  public  sentiment  numerically  is  al- 
ways a  difficult  task.  It  can  never  be  done  ac- 
curately. When  great  questions,  ethical  or  other- 
wise, become  political  issues  upon  which  the  elec- 
torate can  pass  judgment  at  the  ballot  box,  there 
is  a  reasonably  satisfactory  chance  to  measure 
sentiment,  if  not  conviction,  on  that  particular 
subject.  Surely  slavery  was  such  an  issue  in 
1860,  but  even  so,  the  immediate  abolition  of 
slavery  was  not  an  issue,  represented  by  any  po- 
litical party,  or  advocated  by  any  Presidential 
candidate. 

Four  candidates  for  President  appealed  to  the 
electorate  in  1860.  All  of  them  but  Lincoln  held 
an  attitude  of  approval  of  the  peculiar  institution, 
or  were  indifferent  either  as  to  its  existence  or  its 
extension.  As  the  candidate  of  the  Republican 

Page  Thirty-nine 


Page  Forty 

party  Mr.  Lincoln  was  unconditionally  opposed  to 
the  extension  of  slavery  into  any  new  territory. 
The  platform  repudiated  the  Southern  dogma  that 
"the  Constitution,  of  its  own  force,  carries  slavery 
into  any  or  all  of  the  territories  of  the  United 
States."  This  document  also  affirmed  "that  the 
normal  condition  of  all  the  territory  of  the  United 
States  is  that  of  Freedom."  The  platform  con- 
tained no  hint  or  desire,  however,  to  interfere 
with  slavery  in  the  States  where  it  was  already  an 
established  institution. 

Mr.  Lincoln's  three  opponents  for  the  office  of 
President,  were  Stephen  A.  Douglas,  of  Illinois; 
John  C.  Breckenridge,  of  Kentucky;  and  John 
Bell,  of  Tennessee.  The  platform  on  which  Mr. 
Douglas  stood,  as  the  regular  Democratic  candi- 
date, was  entirely  pro-slavery;  sustaining  the 
Fugitive  Slave  Law  and  the  right  of  slaveholders 
to  settle  with  their  property  in  any  territory. 
When  organized  into  a  State  the  question  of 
slavery  or  freedom  was  to  be  determined  by  the 
people  of  the  new  State.  Mr.  Breckenridge  was 
nominated  by  a  convention  which  bolted  from  the 
regular  Democratic  gathering.  He  represented 
the  ultra  southern  view  regarding  slavery  and  the 
Constitution.  Mr.  Bell  was  nominated  by  the  Con- 
stitutional Union  party,  which  was  supposed  to  be 
the  residuary  legatee  of  the  American,  or  Know 
Nothing  party.  This  party  declared,  "That  it  is 
both  the  part  of  patriotism  and  of  duty  to  recog- 


Page  Forty-one 

nize  no  political  principle  other  than  the  Constitu- 
tion of  the  country,  the  Union  of  the  States,  and 
the  enforcement  of  the  laws."  This  brief  review 
will  show  that  slavery  was  an  issue  in  the  election, 
only  as  to  its  extension  and  increase,  and  not  as 
to  its  immediate  or  even  remote  abolition. 

When  the  ballots  were  counted  in  November 
they  showed  a  much-divided  electorate,  the  can- 
didates having  received  the  following  vote : 

Lincoln    1,857,610 

Douglas  1,291,574 

Breckenridge    850,082 

Bell 646,124 

While  Mr.  Lincoln,  representing  the  non-exten- 
sion of  slavery  had  a  majority  of  the  electors,  he 
polled  930,170  fewer  votes  than  his  opponents 
combined.  The  successful  candidate  received  but 
26,430  votes  in  the  slave  States,  and  these  were 
cast  in  the  five  States  of  Delaware,  Maryland, 
Virginia,  Kentucky  and  Missouri.  Breckenridge, 
the  Southern  and  slavery  candidate  received  279,- 
211  votes  in  the  free  States,  100,000  of  which 
were  cast  in  Pennsylvania,  where  Breckenridge 
led  Douglas  by  more  than  20,000.  The  combined 
vote  of  Douglas,  Breckenridge  and  Bell  in  the  free 
States  was  1,557,411.  It  will  thus  be  seen  that  in 
the  free  States  there  was  a  majority  of  only  273,- 
669  in  favor  of  the  non-extension  of  slave  terri- 
tory, to  the  extent  of  the  electors  being  willing  to 
vote  their  convictions  in  the  ballot  box. 

6 


Page  Forty-two 

Of  those  who  voted  for  Lincoln  a  certain  num- 
ber were  undoubtedly  in  favor  of  abolishing 
slavery  throughout  the  national  domain.  The 
remnant  of  the  old  Liberty  and  Free  Soil  parties 
were  undoubtedly  in  favor  of  such  abolition,  as 
were  considerable  numbers  of  anti-slavery  men, 
who  professed  no  partisan  attachment.  Among 
the  Bell  supporters  in  New  England,  of  whom 
there  were  about  ten  thousand,  there  may  have 
been  some  real  anti-slavery  men,  and  this  may  be 
true  of  the  Bell  men  in  New  York,  New  Jersey 
and  Pennsylvania.  But  the  number  was  unknown 
and  negligible.  There  may  have  been  some  op- 
ponents of  slavery  in  the  Douglas  contingency, 
but  not  enough  to  make  a  very  substantial  show- 
ing. 

Assuming  that  an  emancipation  proclamation 
could  have  been  issued  in  1861,  as  a  war  measure, 
or  on  any  other  ground,  with  a  sustaining  public 
opinion  in  the  loyal  States  behind  it,  has  little  if 
any  warrant  in  the  facts  of  history. 


Public  opinion  in  the  North  underwent  strange 
freaks  of  wavering  after  the  election  of  1860.  It 
was  everywhere  manifested  in  a  truculent 
timidity  willing  to  swallow  principles,  and  prac- 
tically surrender  the  victory  of  the  election,  to 
placate  the  threat  of  secession  in  the  South,  where 
a  reckless  haste  characterized  the  leadership. 

Manifestly  the  President-elect  could  hope  for 
neither  sympathy  nor  support  from  those  who 
were  busy  hatching  the  rebellion.  Probably  no 
man  ever  assumed  the  duties  of  the  Presidency 
with  a  more  uncertain  backing  and  a  more  chaotic 
public  opinion  from  those  who  supported  him, 
than  did  Mr.  Lincoln.  The  North  was  willing  to 
do  anything  to  placate  the  wrath  of  the  "erring 
brethren,"  and  keep  them  in  a  Union  they  were 
conspiring  to  wreck.  Free  speech  was  denied  in 
Northern  cities,  and  every  discouragement  from 
threatened  mob  interference  to  conservative  ex- 
hortation was  employed  to  prevent  a  discussion  of 
the  slavery  question;  and  in  Philadelphia  George 
William  Curtis  was  prevented  giving  a  popular 
lecture,  in  no  way  related  to  the  dangerous  topic, 
simply  because  of  his  known  anti-slavery  sym- 
pathies. Some  of  the  free  States  repealed  their 
Personal  Liberty  Laws.  Manufacturing  all  sorts 

Page  Forty-three 


Page  Forty-four 

of  soothing  syrup  for  the  disturbed  body  politic 
was  the  principal  business  north  of  the  Mason 
and  Dixon  Line  in  the  winter  of  1861. 

But  the  resolutions  and  compromises  introduced 
and  passed,  through  the  labors  of  members  of  the 
Republican  party  in  Congress,  constitute  the  most 
astonishing  sample  of  faintheartedness  and  sub- 
servient surrender  of  professed  conviction  in  the 
history  of  our  country. 

When  Congress  assembled  the  first  Monday  in 
December,  1860,  the  rush  to  be  first  in  the  effort 
to  placate  the  South  began.  Henry  Winter  Davis, 
who  later  found  Mr.  Lincoln  too  easy  in  possible 
efforts  at  reconstruction,  wanted  Congress  to  urge 
the  States  to  speedily  get  rid  of  their  laws  favor- 
able to  runaway  slaves.  His  recommendation  con- 
tained a  provision  which  now  sounds  like  a  joke. 
It  was  to  the  effect  that  the  Fugitive  Slave  Law 
should  be  amended  so  as  to  secure  trial  by  jury 
to  the  fugitive  slave,  not  in  the  North  where  he 
might  be  captured,  but  in  the  slave  State,  the 
home  of  his  master. 

It  was  reserved  to  Charles  Francis  Adams,  of 
Massachusetts,  to  propose  the  heaviest  overture 
to  the  slave-holding  interest.  He  suggested  that 
the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  be  amended 
so  that  no  future  amendment  to  that  instrument 
"having  for  its  object  any  interference  with 
slavery,  shall  originate  with  any  State  that  does 
not  recognize  that  relation  within  its  own  limits, 


Page  Forty-five 

or  shall  be  valid  without  the  consent  of  every 
one  of  the  States  composing  the  Union."1  This 
was  maintaining  the  Union  by  exacting  uni- 
formity, and  was  giving  any  one  State  the  power 
to  thwart  the  wishes  of  all  of  the  rest. 

Both  Houses  of  Congress  appointed  large  com- 
mittees to  patch  up  a  plan  of  conciliation.  The 
Senate  Committee  could  not  agree,  but  the  House 
Committee  of  thirty-three  was  more  united,  and 
reported  among  other  things,  six  amendments  to 
the  Constitution,  all  favorable  to  slavery,  and 
practically  guaranteeing  its  perpetuation.  The 
sixth  amendment  made  it  impossible  for  the 
people  or  the  States  ever  to  amend  or  repeal  the 
pro-slavery  amendments  suggested. 

The  climax  was  reached,  however,  with  the 
adoption  of  the  following  amendment  to  the  Con- 
stitution: "No  amendment  shall  be  made  to  the 
Constitution  which  will  authorize  or  give  to  Con- 
gress the  power  to  abolish,  or  interfere  with  any 
State,  with  the  domestic  institutions  thereof,  in- 
cluding that  of  persons  held  to  labor  or  service  by 
the  laws  of  said  State." 

This  proposed  amendment  passed  the  House  by 
a  vote  of  133  to  65,  and  in  the  Senate  the  vote  was 
24  to  12,  exactly  the  necessary  two-thirds.  The 
entire  opposition  in  the  House  came  from  Repub- 
licans, but  it  received  the  support  of  a  good  many 

*Twenty  Years  in  Congress.     By  James  G.  Elaine.     Vol.  I, 
p,  260. 


Page  Forty-six 

members  of  President  Lincoln's  party,  and  could 
not  have  passed  without  Republican  votes. 

This  joint  resolution  was  listed  as  the  Thirteen 
amendment  to  the  Constitution.  It  was  voted  on 
and  passed  by  the  legislature  of  Maryland  and 
Ohio,  but  failed  in  New  England.  While  these  ef- 
forts at  compromise  and  conciliation  were  going 
on  in  Congress,  Southern  men,  some  of  them  mem- 
bers of  either  the  House  or  Senate,  were  busy 
conspiring  to  set  up  the  Confederacy.  Not  a  little 
of  this  work  was  done  in  the  capital  city  itself. 
So  well  known  were  these  plans  to  hatch  secession, 
and  set  up  a  rival  government,  that  the  work  of 
submitting  the  proposed  Thirteenth  Amendment 
appeared  ridiculous,  and  was  practically  sus- 
pended. Apparently  the  only  effect  these  efforts 
at  conciliation  had  on  the  South,  was  to  convince 
the  leaders  of  that  section,  that  secession  would  be 
an  easy  task,  and  that  soon  the  North  would  recog- 
nize the  independence  of  the  Southern  Confed- 
eracy, and  an  empire  founded  on  slavery  would 
be  an  assured  fact. 

The  way  the  compromise  schemes  of  men  in 
dealing  with  great  moral  issues  are  sometimes 
overruled  for  wider  and  more  enduring  good,  is 
illustrated  in  the  fate  of  the  Thirteenth  Amend- 
ment born  in  the  year  of  1861,  by  the  supposed 
saviors  of  the  Union.  Instead  of  the  amendment 
with  the  proverbial  unlucky  number,  enthroning 
slavery,  the  one  ratified  four  years  later  forever 


Page  Forty-seven 

abolished  the  institution   which  recognized  the 
ownership  of  man  by  man. 

Such  in  brief  was  the  condition  of  the  public 
mind  when  Mr.  Lincoln  became  President  on  the 
4th  of  March,  1861.  An  understanding  of  the  dis- 
couraging and  depressing  situation  in  the  North, 
is  necessary  to  an  appreciation  of  Lincoln's  task, 
and  will  help  to  account  for  the  way  he  was  forced 
to  weigh  and  measure  public  opinion,  and  cau- 
tiously deal  with  it,  if  he  was  not  to  find  himself 
a  President  without  a  party,  or  a  coherent  patri- 
otic backing. 

We  have  now  reached  Mr.  Lincoln's  first  official 
utterance  as  the  legally  chosen  executive  of  the 
entire  country.  It  is  hardly  necessary  to  note  the 
splendid  logic  with  which  he  exploded  the  doctrine 
of  secession.  A  brief  reference  to  his  attitude 
toward  slavery  in  the  First  Inaugural  is  in  order 
as  the  next  step  in  our  story.  It  was  Mr.  Lin- 
coln's firm  opinion  that  the  clause  of  the  Consti- 
tution relating  to  persons  "held  to  service  or  labor 
in  one  State,"  and  "escaping  into  another,"  "shall 
be  delivered  up  on  claim  of  the  party  to  whom 
such  service  is  due,"  specifically  referred  to  fugi- 
tive slaves.  He  also  affirmed  that  it  was  so  in- 
tended by  those  who  framed  it.  "And,"  said  Mr. 
Lincoln,  "the  intention  of  the  law  giver  is  the 
law."  The  President  considered  that  the  fourth 
plank  of  the  platform  upon  which  he  was  nomi- 
nated, pledged  the  party  to  enforce  that  provision 


Page  Forty-eight 

of  the  Constitution.    The  only  qualification  of  this 
point  is  the  following  paragraph  of  the  inaugural : 

"Again,  in  any  law  upon  this  subject,  ought  not  all  the 
safeguards  of  liberty  known  in  civilized  and  humane  juris- 
prudence to  be  introduced,  so  that  a  free  man  be  not,  in 
any  case,  surrendered  as  a  slave?  And  might  it  not  be 
well  at  the  same  time  to  provide  by  law  for  the  enforce- 
ment of  that  clause  in  the  Constitution  which  guarantees 
that  'the  citizens  of  each  State  shall  be  entitled  to  all  the 
privileges  and  immunities  of  citizens  in  the  several 
States?'  " 

There  is  not  a  hint  in  the  Inaugural  that  the 
entire  Constitution  would  not  be  faithfully  applied 
by  him.  Of  course  he  referred  to  normal  condi- 
tions, and  the  orderly  providing  of  constitutional 
government,  and  could  not  anticipate  a  condition 
of  civil  war,  amounting  to  armed  resistance  to  the 
Government,  which  he  had  just  taken  a  solemn 
oath  to  defend  and  protect. 


SLAVERY  THE  CONFEDERACY'S  CORNER- 
STONE 

The  anti-bellum  social  institutions  of  the  South 
rested  on  slavery,  while  the  political  prestige  of 
the  section  was  also  dependent  upon  the  "peculiar 
institution."  Therefore  the  election  of  Mr.  Lin- 
coln in  1860,  on  a  platform  pledged  to  the  non- 
extension  of  slave  territory,  brought  to  a  practical 
climax  theories  of  secession  and  nullification  which 
had  appeared  at  intervals  as  threats,  during  the 
existence  of  the  Republic. 

Confined  to  its  existing  territory,  slavery  might 
endure  for  an  indefinite  period,  but  the  South  saw 
that  with  no  opportunity  for  expansion  the  in- 
stitution was  doomed.  While  it  might  be  consti- 
tutionally tolerated,  it  was  likely  to  rest  under 
increased  moral  condemnation. 

For  these  reasons  the  moving  spirits  of  the 
South  did  not  wait  for  the  results  of  the  election 
of  1860  to  be  fully  known,  before  they  began  to 
plan  and  plot  for  the  dissolution  of  the  Union. 
Rapidly  the  movement  for  the  secession  of  States, 
and  the  formation  of  the  Confederacy  took  shape. 
Many  of  these  plans  were  conceived,  and  consul- 
tation about  them  went  on  under  the  droppings  of 
the  National  sanctuary,  if  not  in  the  Capitol  itself. 

7  Page  Forty-nine 


Page  Fifty 

The  purpose  of  this  chapter  is  rather  to  see  to 
what  extent  slavery  was  the  seed  of  secession, 
than  to  discuss  the  ways  and  means  by  which  the 
Rebellion  was  organized  and  forwarded.  Docu- 
mentary evidence,  and  a  wealth  of  competent 
opinion  are  available  in  considering  the  case. 

First,  there  is  the  constitution  of  the  Confed- 
eracy. With  the  exception  of  some  minor  details, 
and  its  provisions  regarding  slavery,  the  docu- 
ment was  patterned  after  the  Old  Constitution. 
The  "peculiar  institution,"  however,  had  the  place 
of  special  reference  in  the  fundamental  law  of  the 
Confederacy.  The  provisions  of  this  document 
recognizing  slavery  are  here  given: 

"The  citizens  of  each  State  *  *  *  shall  have  the 
right  to  transit  and  sojourn  in  any  State  of  this  Con- 
federacy with  their  slaves  and  other  property;  and  the 
right  of  property  in  said  slaves  shall  not  thereby  be 
impaired."  *  *  * 

"No  slave  or  other  person  held  to  service  or  labor  in  any 
State  or  territory  of  the  Confederate  States,  under  the  laws 
thereof,  escaping  or  lawfully  carried  into  another,  shall, 
in  consequence  of  any  law  or  regulation  therein,  be  dis- 
charged from  such  service  or  labor,  but  shall  be  delivered 
up  on  claim  of  the  party  to  whom  such  slave  belongs,  or  to 
whom  such  service  or  labor  may  be  due." 

"The  Confederate  States  may  acquire  new  territory. 
*  *  *  In  all  such  territory  the  institution  of  negro 
Slavery,  as  it  now  exists  in  the  Confederate  States,  shall 
be  recognized  and  protected  by  Congress  and  by  the  terri- 

*A  History  of  the  American  People.  By  Woodrow  Wilson, 
Ph.D.  Vol.  IV,  p.  386. 


Page  Fifty-one 

torial  government;  and  the  inhabitants  of  the  several  Con- 
federate States  and  territories  shall  have  the  right  to  take 
to  such  territory  any  slaves  lawfully  held  by  them  in  any 
of  the  States  or  territories  of  the  Confederate  States."  2 

Alexander  H.  Stephens,  of  Georgia,  on  Novem- 
ber 14,  1860,  made  a  vigorous  speech  before  the 
State  legislature,  and  opposed  the  secession  move- 
ment, as  unwarranted  and  foolish.  On  January 
18,  1861,  in  the  convention  called  to  take  Georgia 
out  of  the  Union,  Mr.  Stephens  was  among  the  89 
men  who  voted  against  secession.  Having  been 
elected  Vice-President  of  the  Confederacy,  on 
March  21st,  he  made  a  speech  the  tenure  of  which 
warrants  the  conclusion  that  he  considered  slavery 
the  dominant  reason  for  the  formation  of  the 
Southern  Confederacy.  We  make  the  following 
extracts : 

"But,  not  to  be  tedious  in  enumerating  the  numerous 
changes  for  the  better,  allow  me  to  allude  to  one  other — 
though  last,  not  least:  the  new  Constitution  has  put  at  rest 
forever  all  the  agitating  questions  relating  to  our  peculiar 
institution — African  Slavery  as  it  exists  among  us — the 
proper  status  of  the  negro  in  our  form  of  civilization.  This 
was  the  immediate  cause  of  the  late  rupture  and  the 
present  revolution." 

Mr.  Stephens  admitted  that  "the  prevailing 
ideas  entertained"  by  Thomas  Jefferson  and  "most 
of  the  leading  Statesmen  at  the  time  of  the  forma- 
tion of  the  Old  Constitution  were,  that  the  en- 
slavement of  the  African  was  in  violation  of  the 

2The  same,  p.  337. 


Page  Fifty-two 

laws  of  nature;  that  it  was  wrong  in  principle, 
socially,  morally  and  politically."  After  declar- 
ing that  the  ideas  of  the  fathers  of  the  Republic 
were  "fundamentally  wrong,"  Mr.  Stephen  said: 

"Our  new  government  is  founded  upon  exactly  the 
opposite  ideas;  its  foundations  are  laid,  its  corner-stone 
rests  upon  the  great  truth  that  the  negro  is  not  equal  to 
the  white  man ;  that  Slavery,  subordination  to  the  superior 
race,  is  his  natural  and  normal  condition.  This,  our  new 
Government,  is  the  first  in  the  history  of  the  world,  based 
upon  this  great  physical,  philosophical,  and  moral  truth." 

However  strange  this  doctrine  may  sound  to 
twentieth  century  ears,  it  leaves  no  doubt  as  to 
what  the  Vice-president  of  the  Confederacy 
thought  about  the  institution  of  slavery  as  a  per- 
manent condition  for  the  negroes  in  America. 

But  we  have  more  recent  and  probably  more 
famous  evidence  regarding  slavery  as  a  cause  of 
the  Civil  War.  The  witness  in  this  case  is  none 
other  than  Woodrow  Wilson,  President  of  the 
United  States.  Speaking  of  the  election  of  Mr. 
Lincoln,  he  says : 

"The  South  had  avowedly  staked  everything,  even  her 
allegiance  to  the  Union,  upon  this  election.  The  triumph 
of  Mr.  Lincoln  was,  in  her  eyes,  nothing  less  than  the 
establishment  in  power  of  a  party  bent  upon  the  destruc- 
tion of  the  Southern  system  and  the  defeat  of  Southern 
interests,  even  to  the  point  of  countenancing  and  assisting 
servile  insurrection.  In  the  metaphor  of  Senator  Ben- 
jamin, the  Republicans  did  not  mean,  indeed,  .to  cut  down 
the  tree  of  slavery,  but  they  meant  to  gird  it  about,  and 
so  cause  it  to  die.  It  seemed  evident  to  the  Southern  men, 


Page  Fifty-three 

too,  that  the  North  would  not  pause  or  hesitate  because 
of  constitutional  guarantees.  *  *  *  The  agitation 
against  slavery  had  spoken  in  every  quarter  the  harshest 
moral  censures  of  slavery  and  the  slave-holders.  The 
whole  course  of  the  South  had  been  described  as  one  of 
systematic  iniquity;  Southern  society  had  been  represented 
as  built  upon  a  wilful  sin;  the  Southern  people  had  been 
held  up  to  the  world  as  those  who  deliberately  despised  the 
most  righteous  commands  of  religion.  They  knew  that 
they  did  not  deserve  such  reprobation.  They  knew  that 
their  lives  were  honorable,  their  relations  with  their  slaves 
humane,  their  responsibility  for  the  existence  of  slavery 
among  them  remote." 3 

Probably  no  man  of  political  foresight  in  the 
South  doubted  the  election  of  Lincoln,  after  that 
section  deliberately  divided  its  vote  between  three 
pro-slavery  candidates,  so  that  insofar  as  it 
"staked"  anything  on  the  election  of  1860,  it  was 
with  the  expectation  of  just  what  happened,  both 
as  to  the  election  itself,  and  the  secession  move- 
ment that  followed. 

No  more  explicit  defense  of  slavery  as  an  in- 
stitution, and  of  slaveholders  as  moralists  has 
been  uttered  since  the  Civil  War,  than  is  contained 
in  the  foregoing  extracts.  The  attempt  to  shift 
the  responsibility  for  the  rebellion  to  the  should- 
ers of  the  North,  may  be  ingenius,  but  as  a  justi- 
fication for  secession  the  claim  is  neither  legally 
nor  logically  sound.  But  Mr.  Wilson  has  un- 
equivocally made  slavery  the  cause  of  the  war. 

3  Epochs  of  American   History :   Division  and   Reunion.     By 
Woodrow  Wilson,  Vol.  Ill,  pp.  208-9. 


CONGRESS  AND  SLAVERY  BEFORE 
EMANCIPATION 

However  President  Lincoln  halted  before  issu- 
ing the  Emancipation  Proclamation,  the  question 
of  slavery  as  related  to  the  war  did  not  escape  the 
attention  and  action  of  either  the  executive  or  leg- 
islative branches  of  the  Government.  The  War 
of  the  Rebellion  had  been  distracting  the  country 
only  about  a  month,1  when  the  House  of  Repre- 
sentatives passed  the  following  resolution :  "That 
in  the  judgment  of  this  House,  it  is  no  part  of  the 
duty  of  soldiers  of  the  United  States  to  capture 
and  return  fugitive  slaves." 

This  opinion  was  not  respected  or  observed  by 
some  of  our  military  commanders  in  the  field.  In 
fact  many,  if  not  most  of  the  West  Point  men, 
during  the  early  part  of  the  war,  considered 
slavery  a  constitutional  institution,  and  they  con- 
cluded that  it  must  be  acknowledged  and  the  slave 
holders  be  protected  in  holding  their  property, 
even  by  the  military  power  of  the  government, 
which  the  same  slaveholders  had  taken  up  arms 
to  disrupt. 

Mr.  Lincoln  sent  his  first  annual  message  to 
Congress,  December  3,  1861.  While  he  made  no 
reference  to  general,  or  what  Horace  Greeley 

1  May  9,  1861. 
Page  Fifty-four 


Page  Fifty-five 

called  "constrained  emancipation,"  a  system  of 
colonization  was  proposed.  This  plan  contem- 
plated settling  such  blacks  as  had  already,  or 
might  in  the  future  be  freed  in  consequence  of  the 
war,  in  some  territory  outside  the  limits  of  the 
United  States.  In  addition  the  President  also 
made  this  suggestion:  "It  might  be  well  to  con- 
sider, too,  whether  the  free  colored  people  already 
in  the  United  States  could  not,  so  far  as  individ- 
uals may  desire,  be  included  in  such  colonization." 

Congress  received  the  recommendation  with 
sufficient  seriousness  to  appropriate  $100,000  in 
aid  of  the  colonization  of  the  freedmen  of  the  Dis- 
trict of  Columbia.  The  appropriation  carried  no 
tangible  result,  except  that  a  few  blacks  were 
taken  to  an  island  on  the  coast  of  Hayti,  with  no 
apparent  advantage  to  any  one,  except  the  specu- 
lators who  undertook  the  transfer. 

The  day  before  the  receipt  of  the  President's 
message,  an  attempt  was  made  to  make  illegal 
what  might  be  called  "slave  hunting"  by  the  army. 
The  original  bill  was  hotly  opposed.  Finally  all 
bills  having  a  similar  intent,  were  embodied  in  an 
extra  Article  of  War,  introduced  in  the  House  by 
F.  P.  Blair,2  as  follows : 

"All  officers  are  prohibited  from  employing  any  of  the 
forces  under  their  respective  commands  for  the  purpose  of 
returning  fugitives  from  service  or  labor  who  may  have 
escaped  from  any  persons  to  whom  such  service  or  labor 

2  February  25,  1862. 


Page  Fifty-six 

is  claimed  to  be  due.  Any  officer  who  shall  be  found  guilty 
by  court-martial  of  violating  this  article  shall  be  dismissed 
from  the  service." 

This  bill  was  finally  passed  by  both  Houses  of 
Congress,  and  was  approved  by  the  President 
March  6th. 

Matters  relating  to  slavery  moved  rather 
rapidly  in  Congress.  In  December,  1861,  eman- 
cipation in  the  District  of  Columbia  came  up  for 
consideration.  The  bill  which  was  introduced, 
was  warmly  discussed  in  both  houses,  and  finally 
passed  mainly  by  party  majorities.  It  was  ap- 
proved by  the  President  April  16,  1862.  The  bill 
carried  a  compensation  clause,  and  provided  pay- 
ment of  $300  each  for  the  slaves  thus  emanci- 
pated. 

Mr.  Lincoln  seems  to  have  been  greatly  im- 
pressed with  the  idea  that  emancipation  would  be 
considered  less  arbitrary  and  objectionable  if  it 
carried  with  it  compensation  for  the  slaveholders' 
peculiar  property.  The  very  day3  on  which  he 
signed  the  bill  abolishing  slavery  in  the  District 
of  Columbia,  he  sent  a  Special  Message  to  Con- 
gress, asking  that  both  Houses  adopt  the  following 
resolution : 

"Resolved,  That  the  United  States,  in  order  to  co-operate 
with  any  State  which  may  adopt  gradual  abolition  of 
Slavery,  give  to  such  State  pecuniary  aid,  to  be  used  by 
such  State,  in  its  discretion,  to  compensate  it  for  the  incon- 

8March  6,  1862. 


Page  Fifty-seven: 

venience,  public  and  private,  produced  by  such  change  of 
system." 

The  President's  comments  upon  the  provisions 
of  the  resolution  did  not  suit  the  abolitionists,  and 
it  is  quite  evident  now  that  they  utterly  failed  in 
measuring  Lincoln's  mind,  up  to  the  point  of  un- 
derstanding its  temper  and  spirit.  His  far-seeing 
judgment  made  him  able  to  see  that  preventing 
the  recognition  of  the  Confederacy  by  the  govern- 
ments of  Europe,  and  especially  by  our  own,  was 
fundamental  to  the  success  of  the  Union  cause. 
If  the  slave  States  in  rebellion,  or  those  that  had 
remained  loyal,  refused  to  accept  this  reasonable 
and  profitable  proposition,  he  felt  that  he  had 
placed  the  Government  in  a  fair  light  before  the 
nations. 

A  vigorous  debate  of  the  resolution  occurred  in 
both  Houses  of  Congress.  It  passed  in  the  House 
by  a  vote  of  89  to  3 1.4  The  resolution  reached  the 
Senate  March  20th,  and  was  passed  April  2nd,  by 
a  vote  of  32  to  10.  The  President  attached  his 
signature  to  the  measure  April  10, 1862. 

It  should  be  stated  that  the  Union  men  from  the 
border  slave  States,  and  the  Northern  Democrats 
generally  utterly  rejected  emancipation  even 
though  it  had  attached  the  salve  of  an  appropria- 
tion. What  is  more,  no  slave  State  ever  made 
application  for  the  benefits  which  this  resolution 
proffered. 

*March  11,  1862.  8 


Page  Fifty-eight 

An  emancipation  bill  which  had  been  drafted, 
but  which  had  been  held  in  committee  for  a  month, 
was  reported  to  the  House  on  May  1,  1862.  It 
provided  for  the  abolition  of  slavery  in  all  of  the 
unorganized  territory  of  the  United  States,  and 
practically  prohibited  its  introduction  into  such 
territory.  This  measure  had  rather  a  stormy  pas- 
sage through  Congress,  but  safely  weathered  all 
opposition,  and  was  approved  by  the  President 
June  19th. 

Congress  had  provided  for  the  confiscation  of 
such  slaves  held  in  the  Confederate  States,  as  were 
permitted  or  forced  to  work  on  fortifications,  or 
other  defences  designed  to  aid  the  rebellion.  Ex- 
perience had  shown  that  more  drastic  treatment 
of  this  peculiar  kind  of  property  was  necessary, 
if  every  advantage  provided  by  the  rules  of  war, 
was  to  be  taken  in  dealing  with  the  enemy.  This 
feeling  took  shape  in  a  joint  resolution  which  de- 
clared that  the  President  and  all  officers  in  com- 
mand under  him,  have  the  right  to  emancipate  the 
slaves  held  in  any  "military  district  in  a  State  of 
insurrection  against  the  National  Government." 
This  resolution  was  suggested  early  in  December, 
1861.  The  proposition  encountered  much  opposi- 
tion in  both  Houses  of  Congress.  Finally  it  was 
considered  by  a  conference  committee,  and  a  new 
bill  quite  as  drastic  was  agreed  to.  It  passed  both 
Houses,  and  was  approved  by  the  President,  April 
24,  1862. 


Page  Fifty-nine 

A  series  of  laws  dealing  with  negroes  and  ex- 
slaves  rapidly  found  their  way  through  Congress. 
One  provided  for  the  education  of  colored  children 
in  the  District  of  Columbia.  This  measure  carried 
a  rider  which  gave  negroes  in  the  District  the 
same  status  before  the  law  as  was  accorded  white 
people. 

In  January,  1862,  President  Lincoln  ordered  the 
Marshal  of  the  District  of  Columbia  not  to  "re- 
ceive into  custody  any  persons  caught  up  as  fu- 
gitives from  slavery,  but  to  discharge  within  ten 
days,  all  such  persons  then  in  jail." 

The  discussions  on  some  of  the  foregoing  bills 
were  fine  samples  of  prejudicial,  faint-hearted  and 
pessimistic  statesmanship.  All  sorts  of  dire 
calamities  were  predicted  because  of  an  affirma- 
tion of  the  right  of  emancipation  as  a  war  meas- 
ure. All  of  these  predictions  were  uttered  by 
Northern  men.  To  expect  to  reconstruct  the  Re- 
public without  the  institution  of  slavery  was  pro- 
nounced the  dream  of  a  madman.  In  fact  the 
pent-up  evil  spirit  of  slavery  uttered  its  most 
bitter  denunciation  on  the  eve  of  its  being  cast  out 
of  the  National  body. 


SLAVERY  AND  THE  ARMY 

Apart  from  points  where  legislation  in  Con- 
gress related  to  slavery  and  the  war  footing,  the 
question  came  up  directly  in  the  army  in  more 
ways  than  one.  We  have  already  seen  that  any 
expectation  or  attempt  to  keep  the  disturbing  ele- 
ment in  the  background  was  a  sorry  disappoint- 
ment from  the  start. 

Gen.  Benjamin  F.  Butler  assumed  command  of 
the  Union  forces  at  Fortress  Monroe  in  May, 
1861.  Very  soon  after  three  slaves  came  inside 
the  lines,  saying  they  were  claimed  by  one  of  the 
commissioned  officers  in  the  Confederate  Army. 
The  colored  men  said  that  they  were  about  to  be 
sent  to  North  Carolina  to  work  on  the  Confed- 
erate fortifications  in  that  State.  Gen.  Butler 
heard  their  story,  and  promptly  declared,  "These 
men  are  contraband  of  war."  The  word  "contra- 
band" as  used  by  Butler  became  almost  a  house- 
hold word  during  the  Civil  War.  The  return  of 
the  slaves  was  demanded,  and  promptly  refused. 

Gen.  Butler  then  referred  the  matter  to  the 
War  Department  at  Washington,  stating  that  all 
such  persons  coming  to  us  could  be  profitably  em- 
ployed within  the  Union  lines.  The  general  com- 
manding wanted  to  know  what  should  be  done 
with  "contrabands."  Secretary  Cameron  prompt- 
Page  Sixty 


Page  Sixty-one 

Jy  replied,  and  in  his  letter  of  instruction,  among 
other  things  said: 

"You  will,  on  the  other  hand,  so  long  as  any  State  within 
wlrich  your  military  operations  are  conducted  remains 
under  the  control  of  such  armed  combinations,  refrain 
from  surrendering  to  alleged  masters  any  person  or  per- 
sons who  come  within  your  lines.  You  will  employ  such 
persons  in  the  services  to  which  they  will  be  best  adapted; 
keeping  an  account  of  the  labor  by  them  performed,  of  the 
value  of  it,  and  the  expense  of  their  maintenance.  The 
question  of  their  final  disposition  will  be  referred  for 
future  determination." 

While  this  position  taken  by  the  War  Depart- 
ment greatly  clarified  the  situation,  it  did  not 
produce  the  weakening  effect  on  the  Confederacy 
which  many  enthusiasts  expected.  If  all  the  mili- 
tary commanders  had  applied  the  rule  as  vigor- 
ously and  sympathetically  as  Butler  did,  the  case 
might  have  been  different.  But  in  any  case  those 
who  fancied  that  the  Rebellion  could  be  put  down 
in  a  quick  and  easy  fashion,  were  expecting  the 
impossible. 

There  were  military  commanders  who  went  be- 
yond any  act  of  Congress,  or  any  avowed  purpose 
of  the  President,  in  proclaiming  freedom  to  the 
slaves.  General  Fremont  was  first  to  take  such 
action.  In  September,  1861,  after  he  had  taken 
command  of  the  Union  forces  in  Missouri,  he  is- 
sued a  General  Order,  in  which  he  said: 

"The  property,  real  and  personal,  of  all  persons  in  the 
State  of  Missouri,  who  shall  take  up  arms  against  the 
United  States,  or  shall  be  directly  proven  to  have  taken 
active  part  with  their  enemies  in  the  field,  is  declared  to 


Page  Sixty-two 

be  confiscated  to  the  public  use;  and  their  slaves,  if  any 
they  have,  are  hereby  declared  free  men." 

This  military  act  of  emancipation  was  annulled 
by  President  Lincoln,1  in  which  the  General  was 
practically  commanded  to  make  his  order  go  no 
further  than  the  act  of  Congress  of  August  6, 
18.61,  relating  to  the  "confiscation  of  property 
used  for  insurrectionary  purposes." 

There  were  a  few  minor  exhibitions  of  radical 
action  regarding  slavery  by  men,  most  of  the 
guilty  parties  being  either  reprimanded  or 
punished. 

General  David  Hunter  succeeded  to  the  com- 
mand of  the  military  department  with  head- 
quarters at  Hilton  Head,  S.  C.,  in  April  1862.  On 
the  9th  of  the  following  month,  Hunter  issued 
General  Order  No.  11.  In  this  document  he  de- 
clared the  states  of  Georgia,  Florida,  and  South 
Carolina  under  martial  law,  saying  that  "slavery 
and  martial  law  in  a  free  country  are  altogether 
incompatible.  The  persons  in  these  states  *  *  * 
heretofore  held  as  slaves,  are  therefore  declared 
forever  free." 

Ten  days 2  after  the  date  of  this  military  order 
President  Lincoln  issued  a  proclamation,  in  which 
he  annuled  the  Hunter  Army  Order  on  the 
ground  that  no  military  commander  had  any  au- 
thority inherent  or  delegated  to  emancipate  slaves 

1  Sept.  11,  1861. 
"May  19,  1862. 


Page  Sixty-three 

in  the  states.  In  this  proclamation  Mr.  Lincoln 
probably  gave  the  first  official  intimation  that  a 
general  emancipation  proclamation  might  be 
issued.  He  clearly  declared  that  whatever  might 
be  done  in  this  particular,  he  reserved  the  doing 
of  it  to  himself  as  Commander-in-Chief  of  the 
Army  and  Navy,  and  would  not  feel  justified  in 
"leaving  it  to  the  decision  of  Commanders  in  the 
field." 

The  major  part  of  this  proclamation  was  con- 
fined to  rehearsing  the  joint  resolution  passed  by 
Congress  in  March  of  that  year,  providing  for 
gradual  compensated  emancipation.  Coupled 
with  the  statement  of  fact  regarding  the  offer 
to  the  slave  states,  was  a  most  tender  appeal  to 
the  citizens  of  those  states  mentioned  in  General 
Hunter's  order.  The  President  thus  closed  his 
proclamation : 

"This  proposal  makes  common  cause  for  a  common  ob- 
ject, casting  no  reproaches  upon  any.  It  acts  not  the 
Pharisee.  The  change  it  contemplates  would  come  gently 
as  the  dews  of  Heaven,  not  rending  or  wrecking  anything. 
Will  you  not  embrace  it?  So  much  good  has  not  been 
done  by  one  effort  in  all  past  time,  as,  in  the  Providence 
of  God,  it  is  now  your  high  privilege  to  do.  May  the  vast 
future  not  have  to  lament  that  you  have  neglected  it!" 

It  should  be  remembered  that  this  almost  pa- 
thetic overture  to  the  men  most  surely  to  be  bene- 
fitted,  was  made  only  four  months  before  the 
initial  draft  of  the  Emancipation  Proclamation 
was  announced.  Mr.  Lincoln's  increasing  attitude 


Page  Sixty-four 

of  mind  from  this  time  on,  until  the  22nd  of  Sep- 
tember, seems  to  have  deliberately  paved  the  way 
for  emancipation  by  throwing  the  burden  of  blame 
upon  those  who  would  not  listen  to  reason,  or  meet 
a  humane  government  and  a  kindly  Executive  half 
way  in  making  more  easy  the  inevitable  end  of  the 
institution  of  slavery. 


APPROACHING  EMANCIPATION 

On  the  12th  of  July,  1862,  President  Lincoln 
made  his  final  appeal  to  the  border  states  to  accept 
compensated  emancipation.  It  seems  that  he  felt 
in  advance  that  his  offer  would  avail  nothing,  but 
he  was  determined  to  make  it  easy  for  the  slave 
states  which  had  remained  loyal  to  the  Union  to 
easily  meet  the  new  conditions. 

The  following  day  the  funeral  of  a  young  child 
of  Secretary  Stanton  was  held.  In  going  out  to 
the  Stanton  residence  Mr.  Lincoln  rode  in  a  car- 
riage with  Secretary  Wells  and  Secretary 
Seward.  It  was  on  this  ride  that  Mr.  Lincoln 
first  broached  the  subject  of  emancipation  by 
proclamation  to  any  members  of  his  cabinet.  Up 
to  this  time  he  had  rather  vigorously  objected  to 
any  interference  of  the  General  Government  with 
the  institution  of  slavery.  Eight  days  later,  on 
the  21st,  the  matter  came  up,  and  he  urged  a  sort 
of  qualified  and  compensated  emancipation,  with 
an  attached  scheme  for  colonizing  the  freed 
negroes  in  some  tropical  or  semi-tropical  region. 

At  a  cabinet  meeting  held  on  the  22nd,  the 
President  expressed  aversion  to  arming  negroes 
like  other  soldiers.  Mr.  Lincoln's  biographers, 
without  trying  to  analyze  the  development  of  his 
mind,  in  speaking  of  this  cabinet  meeting,  make 

9  Page  Sixty-five 


Page  Sixty-six 

this  statement:  "But  on  the  kindred  policy  of 
emancipation  the  President  had  reached  a  decision 
which  appears  to  have  been  in  advance  of  the 
views  of  his  entire  cabinet."  *  At  this  cabinet 
meeting  the  following  first  draft  of  an  emancipa- 
tion proclamation  was  read: 

"In  pursuance  of  the  sixth  section  of  the  Act  of  Congress 
entitled  'An  act  to  suppress  insurrection  and  to  punish 
treason  and  rebellion,  to  seize  and  confiscate  property  of 
rebels,  and  for  other  purposes,'  approved  July  17,  1862, 
and  which  act  and  the  joint  resolution  explanatory  thereof 
are  herewith  published,  I,  Abraham  Lincoln,  President  of 
the  United  States,  do  hereby  proclaim  to  and  warn  all 
persons  within  the  contemplation  of  said  sixth  section  to 
cease  participating  in,  aiding,  countenancing,  or  abetting 
the  existing  rebellion,  or  any  rebellion  against  the  Gov- 
ernment of  the  United  States,  and  to  return  to  their 
proper  allegiance  to  the  United  States,  on  pain  of  the 
forfeitures  and  seizures  as  within  and  by  said  sixth  section 
provided. 

"And  I  hereby  make  known  that  it  is  my  purpose,  upon 
the  next  meeting  of  Congress  to  again  recommend  the 
adoption  of  a  practical  measure  for  tendering  pecuniary 
aid  to  the  free  choice  or  rejection  of  any  and  all  States 
which  may  then  be  recognizing  and  practically  sustaining 
the  authority  of  the  United  States,  and  which  may  then 
have  voluntarily  adopted,  or  thereafter  may  voluntarily 
adopt  gradual  abolishment  of  slavery  within  such  State 
or  States;  that  the  object  is  to  practically  restore  thence- 
forward to  be  maintained  the  constitutional  relation  be- 
tween the  General  Government  and  each  and  all  the  States 
wherein  that  relation  is  now  suspended  or  disturbed;  and 
that  for  this  object  the  war,  as  it  has  been,  will  be  prose- 

1  Abraham  Lincoln :  A  History.  By  John  G.  Nicolay  and 
John  Hay.  Vol.  VI,  p.  125. 


Page  Sixty-seven 

cuted.  And  as  a  fit  and  necessary  military  measure  for 
effecting  this  object,  I,  Commander-in-Chief  of  the  Army 
and  Navy  of  the  United  States,  do  order  and  declare  that 
on  the  first  day  of  January,  in  the  year  of  our  Lord  one 
thousand  eight  hundred  and  sixty-three,  all  persons  held 
as  slaves  within  any  State  or  States  wherein  the  consti- 
tutional authority  of  the  United  States  shall  not  then  be 
practically  recognized  submitted  to,  and  maintained,  shall 
then,  thenceforward,  and  forever  be  free." 

The  only  record  in  existence  of  this  important 
meeting  is  a  single  page  of  notes  made  by  Mr. 
Stanton.  The  notes  are  very  incomplete,  but  are 
definite  enough  to  convey  undisputed  information. 
According  to  this  memoranda,  Seward  opposed 
issuing  the  proclamation  on  account  of  the  effect 
it  would  have  on  foreign  nations.  He  said  that 
some  of  them  would  intervene  because  of  cotton, 
the  evident  meaning  being  that  to  stop  slavery 
would  result  in  curtailing  the  production  of  that 
staple.  Mr.  Chase  pronounced  the  measure  one  of 
great  danger,  but  just  why,  the  Stanton  statement 
does  not  tell  us. 

It  would  seem  that  the  original  draft  of  the 
emancipation  proclamation  quoted  in  this  chapter, 
and  the  real  document  issued  two  months  later 
were  President  Lincoln's  own  act.  We  have  good 
evidence  at  hand  regarding  this  matter,  in  the 
person  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  Secretary  of  the  Navy, 
who  says : 

"After  his  election,  and  after  the  war  commenced,  events 
forced  upon  him  the  emancipation  of  the  slaves  in  the 
rebellion  states.  It  was  his  own  act,  a  bold  step,  an 


Page  Sixty-eight 

executive  measure  originating  with  him,  and  was,  as  stated 
in  the  memorable  appeal  at  the  close  of  the  final  Proclama- 
tion, invoking  for  it  the  considerate  judgment  of  man- 
kind, warranted  alone  by  military  necessity." 2 

The  original  draft  of  the  proclamation,  mani- 
festly incomplete  in  form,  seems  to  have  been 
pigeon-holed  for  the  time  being.  It  is  hardly  con- 
ceivable that  it  was  forgotten. 

There  has  been  a  popular  notion  abroad  that 
adversity  had  followed  the  fortunes  of  the  Union 
forces  during  the  first  half  of  the  year  1862.  But 
such  is  not  the  fact.  It  must  be  remembered  that 
the  capture  of  Forts  Donelson  and  Henry;  the 
capture  of  Roanoke  Island  and  Newberne;  the 
battles  of  Shiloh  and  Corinth;  the  capture  of 
Island  Number  10 ;  fall  of  New  Orleans,  the  re-oc- 
cupation of  Norfolk,  and  a  whole  list  of  minor  suc- 
cessful engagements  in  the  South-west,  happened 
during  this  period.  On  March  8,  1862,  occurred 
the  battle  between  the  Monitor  and  the  Merrimac. 
When  the  Confederates  vacated  Norfolk  shortly 
after,  the  Merrimac  was  scuttled,  and  that  scourge 
of  the  sea  disappeared. 

The  real  discouragement  in  prosecuting  the  war 
at  this  time,  was  the  failure  of  the  Army  of  the 
Potomac  to  meet  expectations.  This  may  be  ad- 
mitted without  stopping  to  take  part  in  the  long- 
lived  McClellan  controversy.  There  was  also  the 


2  Lincoln   and    Seward.     By   Gideon   Wells,    ex-Secretary   of 
the  Navy.    p.  207. 


Page  Sixty-nine 

National  and  official  nervousness  regarding  the 
safety  of  Washington,  with  the  Confederate  Army 
of  Virginia  roaming  around,  inflicting  damage, 
and  a  constant  source  of  danger.  If  McClellan  did 
not  capture  Richmond  there  was  the  fear  that  Lee 
would  move  on  and  possess  the  National  Capital. 


LABORING  WITH  LINCOLN 

Apparently  no  publicity  was  given  at  the  time  to 
the  rough  draft  of  an  emancipation  proclamation 
given  in  the  previous  chapter.  The  anti-slavery 
papers  of  the  period  make  no  mention  of  it,  and 
such  books  as  Greeley's  "American  Conflict,"  make 
no  reference  to  such  a  document.  The  months  of 
July  and  August,  1862  were  characterized  by  phe- 
nomenal activity  on  the  part  of  the  ultra-aboli- 
tionists. The  milder  anti-slavery  men,  and  not  a 
few  church  bodies,  either  sent  memorials  or  had 
delegates  make  pilgrimages  to  Washington  to  try 
and  convince  Mr.  Lincoln  that  the  way  to  break 
the  back  of  the  rebellion  was  to  break  the  shackles 
of  the  slave.  Had  they  known  the  prophetic  docu- 
ment sleeping  in  a  Presidential  pigeon-hole,  some 
of  those  who  scolded  the  President,  might  have 
been  more  gentle  in  speech  and  action. 

Garrison's  Liberator,  in  its  issue  of  July  25, 
declared :  "The  President  can,  by  a  single  word, 
and  in  a  single  week,  reduce  the  rebel  army  to 
one-half  its  present  number."  The  magical  word 
was  of  course  EMANCIPATION.  In  another  column 
on  the  same  page  of  the  same  issue,  the  Liberator 
said :  "But  the  government  is  practically  false  to 
itself — blind  as  a  bat  to  its  true  line  of  policy — 
stumbling,  halting,  prevaricating,  irresolute, 
weak,  besotted."  Civilians,  non-resistants, 

Page  Seventy 


Page  Seventy-one 

preachers,  agitators,  were  all  telling  how  the  war 
should  be  waged,  and  victories  won. 

While  the  Anti-Slavery  Standard  was  much 
more  gentle  in  its  criticism,  it  was  equally  positive 
in  advising  Emancipation  as  the  speedy  cure  for 
all  our  National  ills. 

The  Progressive  Friends,  of  Longwood,  Pa., 
sent  a  delegation  to  Washington  to  labor  with  the 
President,  evidently  some  time  in  June.  The  re- 
port of  this  visit,  as  given  in  the  New  York 
Tribune,  indicates  that  he  argued  the  point  with 
his  visitors,  and  stated  as  one  of  his  reasons  for 
not  issuing  an  emancipation  proclamation  that 
such  a  decree  "could  not  be  more  binding  upon  the 
South  than  the  Constitution,  and  that  cannot  be 
enforced  in  that  part  of  the  country  now."  This 
statement  was  most  vigorously  criticised  and  con- 
demned by  the  abolitionists. 

On  the  17th  of  June  a  committee  representing 
the  Reformed  Presbyterian  Church  Synod,  had  an 
interview  with  Mr.  Lincoln,  and  presented  resolu- 
tions on  the  subject  of  slavery,  which  the  Synod 
had  adopted.  This  committee  approached  the 
President  sympathetically,  and  received  from  him 
an  appreciative  reply.  He  assured  the  committee 
that  he  had  no  disagreement  with  them  regarding 
slavery  as  an  evil,  but  intimated  that  when  getting 
rid  of  a  long-established  institution  was  the  issue, 
the  method  of  action  was  not  so  plain,  and  ad- 
mitted of  honest  difference  of  opinion.  Then  he 
said  to  his  visitors:  "Feeling  deeply  my  respon- 


Page  Seventy-two 

sibility  to  my  country,  and  to  that  God  to  whom 
we  all  owe  allegiance,  I  assure  you  I  will  try  to 
do  my  best,  and  so  may  God  help  me." * 

The  way  Lincoln  was  assailed  during  this  period 
is  plainly  illustrated  in  the  current  periodicals, 
and  especially  those  of  pronounced  abolition  pro- 
clivities. In  its  edition  of  August  9,  the  Anti- 
Slavery  Standard  pronounced  President  Lincoln 
"utterly  ignorant"  of  the  situation,  and  said  that 
he  was  "misled  by  others."  Later  the  Standard 
printed  an  article  from  the  New  York  Indepen- 
dent written  by  Henry  Ward  Beecher  criticising 
Mr.  Lincoln.  In  this  article  the  great  Brooklyn 
preacher  among  other  things  said :  "Mr.  Lincoln 
is  a  good  man;  a  considerate,  prudent,  honest 
politician.  But  not  a  spark  of  genius  has  he ;  not 
an  element  for  leadership;  not  one  particle  of 
heroic  enthusiasm." 

Mr.  Beecher  then  proceeded  to  make  light  of 
the  messages  and  state  papers  of  Mr.  Lincoln, 
making  this  statement: 

"There  has  not  been  a  line  in  any  government  paper  that 
might  not  have  been  issued  by  the  Czar,  by  Louis  Napo- 
leon, or  by  Jeff.  Davis!  Our  state  papers  during  this 
eventful  struggle  are  void  of  genuine  enthusiasm  for  the 
great  doctrines  on  which  this  government  was  founded."2 

On  the  first  of  August,  1862  a  celebration  of 
British  emancipation  in  the  West  Indies  was  held 

1  National  Anti-Slavery  Standard.    Aug.  2,  1862,  p.  2. 

2  The  same.    Aug.  16,  p.  4. 


Page  Seventy-three 

in  Abington,  Mass.  A  good  deal  of  the  speech- 
making  was  either  in  criticism  or  caricature  of 
Mr.  Lincoln.  One  of  the  speakers  was  Rev.  Mon- 
cure  D.  Conway,  who  repudiated  the  theory  of  a 
"representative  man,"  and  intimated  that  the  need 
was  for  a  super-representative  man.  He  found 
fault  with  the  President  because  he  proclaimed 
that  negroes  should  work  in  the  army  camps, 
because  he  was  forced  to  it,  when  he  should  have 
done  so  on  his  own  motion.  Having  been  in  Wash- 
ington he  said,  "I  got  an  idea,  a  thing  which  is 
rarely  known  in  that  region  of  country."  Con- 
tinuing, he  said : 

"The  ancients  had  a  fable  that  the  world  rested  on  an 
elephant,  and  the  elephant  on  a  tortoise.  Now,  the 
ancients  had  a  vision  of  this  country  when  they  said  that. 
The  elephant  is  our  army,  and  the  only  disagreeable  fact 
about  it  is  that  that  army  rests  on  Abraham  Lincoln;  and 
if  he  is  not  a  tortoise,  there  never  was  one  made  by  God 
Almighty.  It  is  impossible  for  Abraham  Lincoln  to  move 
faster  than  the  tortoise;  he  hag  tried  it  and  it  is  'no  go.' 
He  has  got  a  heavy  shell  on  his  back.  He  got  it  at  his 
birth,  for  that  is  the  kind  of  animal  that  grows  in 
Kentucky." ' 

We  have  not  paid  any  attention  to  the  vitupera- 
tion of  the  pro-slavery  press  or  orators.  There 
was  no  reason  to  expect  that  they  would  do  other 
than  make  Mr.  Lincoln's  task  as  difficult  as  pos- 
sible. 

The  President  kept  on  the  even  tenor  of  his  way, 
revolving  the  cause  and  its  need  in  his  mind,  not 

3  The  Liberator,  August  18,  1862,  p.  2.  10 


Page  Seventy-four 

wearing  his  heart  on  his  sleeve,  but  patiently  bear- 
ing the  burdens  that  were  his.  Half  of  the  month 
of  August  was  gone,  when  the  storm  broke  from  a 
new  if  not  unexpected  quarter,  to  be  related  in 
the  next  chapter. 


LINCOLN  AND  HOKACE  GREELEY 

Considering  the  present  popularity  of  President 
Lincoln,  it  seems  almost  unbelievable  that  during 
his  official  life  he  was  the  victim  of  the  most  bit- 
ter and  unfeeling  criticism.  However  sincere 
some  of  it  was  at  the  time,  we  now  know  that  most 
of  it  was  mistaken  and  misplaced.  Among  the 
most  pointed  of  Lincoln's  critics  in  1862  was 
Horace  Greeley,  the  master-spirit  of  the  New 
York  Tribune.  The  wide  circulation  and  com- 
manding influence  of  that  paper,  gave  tremendous 
carrying  power  to  whatever  its  able  editor  said. 
The  late  Alexander  K.  McClure,  of  Philadelphia, 
himself  a  journalist  of  note,  declared : 

"The  New  York  Tribune  was  then  the  most  influential 
journal  ever  published  in  this  country.  It  was  the  Repub- 
lican Bible,  and  its  weekly  edition  was  more  read  in  the 
West  than  all  other  Eastern  papers  combined." 1 

In  the  summer  of  1862,  with  the  war  still 
raging,  when  the  optimists  fancied  that  it  should 
have  fully  ceased,  President  Lincoln  was  bom- 
barded by  anti-slavery  men  of  all  sorts  to  speedily 
proclaim  the  abolition  of  slavery.  Greeley  was 
first  among  the  bombarders,  and  on  the  19th  of 
August  he  published  an  "open  letter"  to  the  Presi- 
dent in  the  Tribune,  entitled  "The  Prayer  of 

1  Our  Presidents  and  How  We  Make  Them.  A.  K.  McClure, 
LL.D.,  p.  155. 

Page  Seventy-five 


Page  Seventy-six 

Twenty  Millions."     Here  are  some  of  its  salient 
features  selected  by  Greeley  himself: 

"On  the  face  of  this  wide  earth,  Mr.  President,  there 
is  not  one  disinterested,  determined,  intelligent  champion 
of  the  Union  cause  who  does  not  feel  that  all  attempts  to 
put  down  the  Rebellion,  and  at  the  same  time  uphold  its 
inciting  cause,  are  preposterous  and  futile — that  the  Rebel- 
lion, if  crushed  out  to-morrow,  would  be  renewed  within  a 
year  if  slavery  were  left  in  full  vigor — that  army  officers, 
who  remain  to  this  day  devoted  to  slavery,  can  at  least  be 
but  half-way  loyal  to  the  Union — and  that  every  hour  of 
deference  to  slavery  is  an  hour  of  added  and  deepened  peril 
to  the  Union.  I  appeal  to  the  testimony  of  your  Ambas- 
sadors in  Europe.  It  is  freely  at  your  service,  not  mine. 
Ask  them  to  tell  you  candidly  whether  the  seeming  sub- 
serviency of  your  policy  to  the  slaveholding,  slavery-up- 
holding interest,  is  not  the  perplexity,  the  despair,  of 
statesmen  of  all  parties ;  and  be  admonished  by  the  general 
answer ! 

"I  close  as  I  began,  with  the  statement  that  what  an 
immense  majority  of  the  loyal  millions  of  your  country- 
men require  of  you  is  a  frank,  declared,  unqualified,  un- 
grudging execution  of  the  laws  of  the  land,  more  especially 
of  the  Confiscation  Act.  That  act  gives  freedom  to  the 
slaves  of  Rebels  coming  within  our  lines,  or  whom  those 
lines  may  at  any  time  inclose — we  ask  you  to  render  it  due 
obedience  by  publicly  requiring  all  your  subordinates  to 
recognize  and  obey  it.  The  Rebels  are  everywhere  using 
the  late  anti-negro  riots  in  the  North — as  they  have  long 
used  your  officers'  treatment  of  negroes  in  the  South  to 
convince  the  slaves  that  they  have  nothing  to  hope  from  a 
Union  success — 'that  we  mean  in  that  case  to  sell  them  into 
a  bitter  bondage  to  defray  the  cost  of  the  war.  Let  them 
impress  this  as  a  truth  on  the  great  mass  of  their  ignorant 
and  credulous  bondmen,  and  the  Union  will  never  be 
restored — never.  We  cannot  conquer  ten  millions  of  people 


Page  Seventy-seven 

united  in  solid  phalanx  against  us,  powerfully  aided  by 
Northern  sympathizers  and  European  allies.  We  must 
have  scouts,  guides,  spies,  cooks,  teamsters,  diggers,  and 
choppers,  from  the  Blacks  of  the  South — whether  we  allow 
them  to  fight  for  us  or  not — or  we  shall  be  baffled  and 
repelled.  As  one  of  the  millions  who  would  gladly  have 
avoided  this  struggle  at  any  sacrifice  but  that  of  principle 
and  honor,  but  who  now  feels  that  the  triumph  of  the 
Union  is  indispensable  not  only  to  the  existence  of  our 
country,  but  to  the  well-being  of  mankind,  I  entreat  you  to 
render  a  hearty  and  unequivocal  obedience  to  the  law  of 
the  land. 

"Yours,  HORACE  GREELEY."Z 

On  the  following  day  President  Lincoln  replied 
to  "The  Prayer  of  Twenty  Millions"  by  telegraph, 
a  most  unusual  proceeding  for  the  Executive  of  a 
great  Nation,  in  replying  to  the  criticism  of  a 
purely  private  citizen.  The  dispatch  was  a  typical 
Lincoln  document,  and  a  good  sample  of  his  liter- 
ary style.  Mr.  Lincoln  said: 

"EXECUTIVE  MANSION,  WASHINGTON, 

"August  22,  1862. 
"HON.  HORACE  GREELEY: 

"DEAR  SIR:  I  have  just  read  yours  of  the  19th  instant, 
addressed  to  myself  through  The  New  York  Tribune. 

"If  there  be  in  it  any  statements  or  assumptions  of  fact 
which  I  may  know  to  be  erroneous,  I  do  not  now  and  here 
controvert  them. 

"If  there  be  any  inferences  which  I  may  believe  to  be 
falsely  drawn,  I  do  not  now  and  here  argue  against  them. 

2  The  American  Conflict.  By  Horace  Greeley.  Vol.  II,  pp. 
249-50. 


Page  Seventy-eight 

"If  there  be  perceptible  in  it  an  impatient  and  dictatorial 
tone,  I  waive  it  in  deference  to  an  old  friend  whose  heart 
I  have  always  supposed  to  be  right. 

"As  to  the  policy  I  'seem  to  be  pursuing,'  as  you  say,  1 
have  not  meant  to  leave  any  one  in  doubt.  I  would  save 
the  Union.  I  would  save  it  in  the  shortest  way  under  the 
Constitution. 

"The  sooner  the  national  authority  can  be  restored,  the 
nearer  the  Union  will  be  the  Union  as  it  was. 

"If  there  be  those  who  would  not  save  the  Union  unless 
they  could  at  the  same  time  save  Slavery,  I  do  not  agree 
with  them. 

"My  paramount  object  is  to  save  the  Union,  and  not 
either  to  save  or  destroy  Slavery. 

"If  I  could  save  the  Union  without  freeing  any  slave,  I 
would  do  it — if  I  could  save  it  by  freeing  all  the  slaves, 
I  would  do  it — and  if  I  could  do  it  by  freeing  some  and 
leaving  others  alone,  I  would  also  do  that. 

"What  I  do  about  Slavery  and  the  Colored  Race,  I  do 
because  I  believe  it  helps  to  save  this  Union;  and  what  I 
forbear,  I  forbear  because  I  do  not  believe  it  would  help 
to  save  the  Union. 

"I  shall  do  less  whenever  I  shall  believe  what  I  am  doing 
hurts  the  cause,  and  I  shall  do  more  whenever  I  believe 
doing  more  will  help  the  cause. 

"I  shall  try  to  correct  errors  when  shown  to  be  errors; 
and  I  shall  adopt  new  views  so  fast  as  they  shall  appear 
to  be  true  views. 

"I  have  here  stated  my  purpose  according  to  my  views 
of  official  duty;  and  I  intend  no  modification  of  my  oft- 
expressed  personal  wish  that  all  men  everywhere  could  be 
free. 

"Yours,  A.  LINCOLN." 

Greeley's  letter  was  probably  more  widely  read 
and  generally  discussed  than  the  President's  reply. 
In  its  caustic  criticism  and  almost  brutal  blunt- 


Page  Seventy-nine 

ness,  it  really  represented  the  feeling  of  a  large 
number  of  intense  men.  It  should  be  remembered 
that  Horace  Greeley  was  an  impulsive  idealist. 
He  had  little  capacity,  in  a  strenuous  time  of  heat 
and  excitement,  to  weigh  or  measure  Lincoln's 
ability  to  be  calm  and  patient,  and  wait  for  public 
opinion  to  catch  up  with  his  idealism.  Later  on, 
however,  Mr.  Greeley  made  a  handsome  confession 
of  his  own  short-sightedness,  coupled  with  an 
acknowledgement  of  President  Lincoln's  great 
service  to  his  country.  He  may  have  had  "The 
Prayer  of  Twenty  Millions"  in  mind  when  he 
wrote  the  following : 

"Though  I  very  heartily  supported  it  when  made,  I  did 
not  favor  his  renomination  for  President;  for  I  wanted  the 
war  driven  onward  with  vehemence  and  this  was  not  in 
his  nature.  Always  dreading  that  the  National  credit 
would  fail,  or  the  National  resolution  falter,  I  feared  that 
his  easy  ways  would  allow  the  rebellion  to  obtain  European 
recognition  and  achieve  ultimate  success.  But  that  'Divin- 
ity that  shapes  our  ends'  was  quietly  working  out  for  us 
a  larger  and  fuller  deliverance  than  I  had  dared  to  hope 
for,  leaving  to  such  short-sighted  mortals  as  I  no  part  but 
to  wonder  and  adore.  We  have  had  chieftains  who  would 
have  crushed  the  rebellion  in  six  months,  and  restored  'the 
Union  as  it  was;'  but  God  gave  us  the  one  leader  whose 
control  secured  not  only  the  downfall  of  the  Rebellion,  but 
the  eternal  overthrow  of  Human  Slavery  under  the  flag 
of  the  Great  Republic." 8 

8  Recollections  of  a  Busy  Life.     By  Horace  Greeley.    p.  409. 


CONTINUED  URGING  AND  ARGUING 

Matters  progressed  slowly,  but  steadily  during 
the  months  of  August  and  September.  Public 
meetings  of  all  sorts  were  held ;  ministers  fulmin- 
ated from  pulpits,  and  newspapers  continued  to 
appeal  to  the  President,  not  always  wisely  or  well, 
that  the  country's  case  might  be  met  by  an  act  of 
emancipation  on  his  part.  Still,  with  the  sleeping 
provisional  draft  of  emancipation,  in  his  posses- 
sion, Mr.  Lincoln  showed  no  sign  that  he  was 
about  to  take  the  step  which  soon  thrilled  the 
Nation. 

On  Sunday  evening,  the  7th  of  September,  1862, 
what  the  newspapers  called  a  "great  war  meeting 
of  Christians,  representing  all  denominations," 
was  held  in  Chicago.  This  meeting  memorialized 
the  President  in  dignified  but  positive  language. 
The  memorial  noted  that  emancipation  in  the  Dis- 
trict of  Columbia,  and  in  the  unorganized  National 
territory,  had  not  met  the  country's  crisis.  It 
therefore  prayed  the  President  that  as  "the  only 
means  of  preserving  the  Union  to  proclaim,  with- 
out delay,  National  emancipation."  x 

Two  of  the  leading  clergymen  of  the  city  took 
the  memorial  to  Washington,  and  presented  it 
to  Mr.  Lincoln  on  the  13th.  There  was  a  discus- 

1  National  Anti-Slavery  Standard,  September  20,  1862,  p.  1. 
Page  Eighty 


Page  Eighty-one 

sion  at  close  range  between  the  President  and  his 
visitors,  touching  the  merits  and  practical  char- 
acter of  their  contention.  The  arguments  at  first 
presented  by  the  Executive,  seem  strange  in  con- 
nection with  the  purpose  he  had  expressed  at  the 
cabinet  meeting  held  the  22nd  of  July.  In  the 
main  he  cited  the  manifestly  divided  public 
opinion  of  the  country.  "The  subject  is  difficult," 
he  said,  "and  good  men  do  not  agree."  He  clearly 
intimated  that  the  burden  on  him  was  very  great, 
and  the  problem  was  not  so  easy  as  those  who  did 
not  directly  have  to  meet  it  fancied.  Then  he 
propounded  this  question: 

"Now,  then,  tell  me,  if  you  please,  what  possible  result 
of  good  would  follow  the  issuing  of  such  a  proclamation  as 
you  desire?  Understand,  I  raise  no  objections  against  it 
on  legal  or  constitutional  grounds;  for,  as  Commander-in- 
Chief  of  the  army  and  navy  in  time  of  war,  I  suppose  I 
have  a  right  to  take  any  measure  which  may  best  subdue 
the  enemy;  nor  do  I  urge  objections  of  a  moral  nature, 
in  view  of  possible  consequences  of  insurrection  and  mas- 
sacre at  the  South.  I  view  this  matter  as  a  practical  war 
measure,  to  be  decided  on  according  to  the  advantages  or 
disadvantages  it  may  offer  to  the  suppression  of  the  Re- 
bellion." 2 

The  preacherly  pleaders  urged  the  effect  an 
emancipation  proclamation  would  have  in  mak- 
ing sentiment  favorable  to  the  Union  cause  in 
Europe.  They  also  affirmed  that  such  action 


2  The  American  Conflict.     By  Horace  Greeley.     Vol.  II,  p. 
251-2.  11 


Page  Eighty-two 

would  justify  an  appeal  "to  the  God  of  the  op- 
pressed and  down-trodden  for  his  blessing"  upon 
our  efforts  to  end  the  rebellion  by  crushing  slav- 
ery. Mr.  Lincoln  responded  by  an  expressed  de- 
sire to  stimulate  Union  feeling  especially  in  the 
border  States.  He  intimated  that  we  possessed 
an  "important  principle  to  rally  and  unite  the 
people,  in  the  fact  that  constitutional  government 
is  at  stake.  This  is  a  fundamental  idea,  going 
down  about  as  deep  as  anything."  3 

The  discussion  continued,  the  President  closing 
the  conference  with  these  sober  and  searching 
words : 

"Do  not  misunderstand  me  because  I  have  mentioned 
these  objections.  They  indicate  the  difficulties  that  have 
thus  far  prevented  my  action  in  some  such  way  as  you 
desire.  I  have  not  decided  against  a  proclamation  of  lib- 
erty to  the  slaves,  but  hold  the  matter  under  advisement. 
And  I  can  assure  you  that  the  subject  is  on  my  mind,  by 
day  and  by  night,  more  than  any  other.  Whatever  shall 
appear  to  be  God's  will,  I  will  do.  I  trust  that,  in  the  free- 
dom with  which  I  have  canvassed  your  views,  I  have  not  in 
any  respect  injured  your  feelings."  * 

An  explanation  of  the  purpose  of  Mr.  Lincoln 
in  this  talk  with  the  Chicago  clergyman,  is  made 
by  one  of  his  biographers,  who  says : 

"For  the  purpose  of  fully  elucidating  their  views,  he 
started  objections  to  the  policy  they  urged,  and  in  accord- 
ance with  his  old  practice  at  the  bar,  he  made  an  argument 

8  The  same,  p.  252. 
*  The  same. 


Page  Eighty-three 

against  his  own  views,   and   against  the  policy  he   had 
nearly  or  quite  concluded  to  pursue." 5 

In  the  midst  of  these  weeks  of  pleading,  in 
which  passion  and  prejudice  were  often  so  mani- 
fest, there  were  utterances  sane  and  sober,  Chris- 
tian and  kindly,  which  went  to  the  center  of  the 
whole  matter.  In  this  class  belonged  a  sermon 
preached  in  Ebitt  Hall,  New  York,  Sunday,  Sep- 
tember 14th,  by  Rev.  0.  B.  Frothingham.  We  do 
not  know  that  Mr.  Lincoln  ever  read  this  sermon, 
but  if  he  did  it  must  have  impressed  him  much 
more  than  the  superfluity  of  scolding  with  which 
he  was  visited.  Mr.  Frothingham  made  a  touch- 
ing and  gentle  plea  for  faith  in  men,  for  confi- 
dence in  the  moral  virtues,  a"nd  for  the  spirit  of 
kindness.  We  quote  a  sample  of  the  preacher's 
noble  utterance: 

"On  the  one  hand,  there  is  far  too  little  of  the  Christian 
feeling  which  bids  us  forgive  our  enemies;  on  the  other, 
there  is  far  too  little  of  the  Christian  feeling  that  bids 
us  recognize  the  manhood  of  the  poor  and  weak.  There  is 
too  much  vindictiveness  toward  the  slave-owner — too  little 
consideration  for  the  slave — f atal  either  to  the  noblest  suc- 
cess— doubly  fatal  both.  We  must  overcome  these  two  for- 
midable obstacles.  We  must  generate  force  enough  to 
overcome  them.  We  can  generate  if  we  will;  the  capacity 
for  it  is  in  us;  the  materials  for  it  are  in  us;  they  are 
ready  to  be  used.  We  need  faith  to  use  them.  When  the 
Son  of  Man  cometh,  he  cometh  at  midnight,  and  it  is  not 
midnight  yet.  Will  he  find  this  faith?  I  believe  he  will. 


6  The    History    of   Abraham   Lincoln    and    the   Overthrow   of 
Slavery.     By  Isaac  N.  Arnold,  p.  289. 


Page  Eighty-four 

In  spite  of  all  that  is  said  to  the  contrary,  the  belief 
deepens  that  the  significance  of  slavery  in  this  conflict  is 
seen  with  more  and  more  distinctness — that  the  character 
of  slavery  is  viewed  with  more  and  more  detestation — that 
the  resolution  to  have  done  with  slavery  knocks  louder  and 
louder  at  the  gates  of  Washington — that  the  answer  to 
that  resolution  will  soon  come  from  the  occupant  of  the 
White  House." ' 

It  seemed  to  us  that  this  story  would  be  one- 
sided and  possibly  overdrawn,  if  it  did  not  con- 
tain some  account  of  the  kindlier  spirit  which  was 
present  in  the  country  in  that  strenuous  time. 
Mr.  Frothingham  had  faith  in  Lincoln,  and  suc- 
cess for  the  cause  when  others  faltered,  and  sug- 
gested failure. 

Six  days  after  the  visit  of  the  Chicago  clergy- 
men, President  Lincoln  received  two  members  of 
the  Religious  Society  of  Friends  from  Southern 
Ohio.  They  were  Isaac  and  Sarah  Harvey.  Isaac 
made  the  journey  to  Washington  under  what 
Friends  call  a  deep  religious  concern.  In  1861  he 
made  a  trip  on  horseback  through  sections  of  the 
South,  that  he  might  know  the  real  condition  of 
the  "oppressed  negroes."  These  venerable  Friends 
were  found  on  a  street  in  Washington  by  Secre- 
tary Chase,  and  an  arrangement  for  an  interview 
with  the  President  was  made  for  them  the  follow- 
ing day.  We  do  not  know  just  what  happened  in 
detail  between  the  great  President  and  the  plain 

•  National  Anti-Slavery  Standard.     September  20,  1862,  p.  2. 


Page  Eighty-five 

Friends.     Isaac  Harvey,  in  his  simple  narrative 
of  his  experience,  said : 

"Of  that  half  hour  it  does  not  become  me  to  speak. 
I  will  think  of  it  gratefully  throughout  eternity.  At  last 
we  had  to  go.  The  President  took  a  hand  of  each  of  us  in 
his,  saying,  'I  thank  you  for  this  visit.  May  God  bless 
you.'  Was  there  ever  greater  condescension  than  that? 
Just  then  I  asked  him  if  he  would  object  to  writing  just  a 
line  or  two,  certifying  that  I  had  fulfilled  my  mission,  so 
that  I  could  show  it  to  the  council  at  home.  He  sat  down 
to  his  table."  7 

The  note  given  by  Mr.  Lincoln  to  the  Harveys, 
is  as  follows: 

"I  take  pleasure  in  asserting  that  I  have  h«d  profitable 
intercourse  with  friend  Isaac  Harvey  and  his  good  wife, 
Sarah  Harvey.  May  the  Lord  comfort  them  as  they  have 
sustained  me.  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN."8 

"Sept.  19,  1862." 

Considering  Mr.  Lincoln's  susceptibility  to  re- 
ligious and  spiritual  influences,  it  is  quite  con- 
ceivable that  the  meeting  with  Friend  Harvey 
may  have  helped  prepare  the  way  for  the  Eman- 
cipation Proclamation  issued  three  days  later. 

7  Friends  with  Lincoln  in  the  White  House,  p.  21-22.    Adapted 
from  Nellie  Blessing  Eyster's  Narrative. 

8  The  same. 


MORE  INCIDENTS  REGARDING  THE 
PROCLAMATION 

Some  of  the  statements  in  regard  to  the  prep- 
aration of  the  Emancipation  Proclamation  are  un- 
doubtedly based  on  the  story  of  Frank  Carpenter, 
the  artist.  In  the  winter  of  1864  he  went  to 
Washington  to  paint  the  picture,  "Signing  the 
Proclamation."  For  six  months  he  was  a  daily 
visitor  at  the  White  House  and  occupied  a  room  in 
it  as  an  improvised  studio.  It  was  Carpenter's 
plan  to  get  from  the  President  a  pretty  clear  idea 
of  the  way  the  plan  and  purpose  of  the  proclama- 
tion developed  in  his  mind,  and  these  scraps  of 
information  are  given  by  Carpenter  in  his  book, 
"Six  Months  at  the  White  House  with  Abraham 
Lincoln."  This  is  the  statement  put  into  the 
mouth  of  Lincoln  by  Carpenter: 

"It  had  got  to  be,"  said  he,  "midsummer,  1862.  Things 
had  gone  on  from  bad  to  worse,  until  I  felt  that  we  had 
reached  the  end  of  our  rope  on  the  plan  of  operations  we 
had  been  pursuing;  that  we  had  about  played  our  last 
card,  and  must  change  our  tactics,  or  lose  the  game!  I 
now  determined  upon  the  adoption  of  the  emancipation 
policy;  and,  without  consultation  with,  or  the  knowledge  of 
the  Cabinet,  I  prepared  the  original  draft  of  the  proclama- 
tion, and,  after  much  anxious  thought,  called  a  Cabinet 
meeting  upon  the  subject.  This  was  the  last  of  July,  or 
the  first  part  of  the  month  of  August,  1862."  (The  exact 
date  he  did  not  remember.)  "This  Cabinet  meeting  took 
place,  I  think,  upon  Saturday.  All  were  present,  except- 
Page  Eighty-six 


Page  Eighty-seven 

ing  Mr.  Blair,  the  Postmaster-General,  who  was  absent  at 
the  opening  of  the  discussion,  but  came  in  subsequently.  I 
said  to  the  Cabinet  that  I  had  resolved  upon  this  step,  and 
had  not  called  them  together  to  ask  their  advice,  but  to 
lay  the  subject-matter  of  a  proclamation  before  them;  sug- 
gestions as  to  which  would  be  in  order,  after  they  had 
heard  it  read.  Mr.  Lovejoy,"  said  he,  "was  in  error  when 
he  informed  you  that  it  excited  no  comment,  excepting  on 
the  part  of  Secretary  Seward.  Various  suggestions  were 
offered.  Secretary  Chase  wished  the  language  stronger 
in  reference  to  the  arming  of  the  blacks.  Mr.  Blair,  after 
he  came  in,  deprecated  the  policy  on  the  ground  that  it 
would  cost  the  Administration  tke  fall  elections.  Nothing, 
however,  was  offered  that  I  had  not  already  fully  antici- 
pated and  settled  in  my  own  mind,  until  Secretary  Seward 
spoke.  He  said  in  substance :  'Mr.  President,  I  approve  of 
the  proclamation,  but  I  question  the  expediency  of  its  issue 
at  this  juncture.  The  depression  of  the  public  mind,  con- 
sequent upon  our  repeated  reverses,  is  so  great  that  I  fear 
the  effect  of  so  important  a  step.  It  may  be  viewed  as  the 
last  measure  of  an  exhausted  government,  a  cry  for  help; 
the  government  stretching  forth  its  hands  to  Ethiopia, 
instead  of  Ethiopia  stretching  forth  her  hands  to  the  gov- 
ernment.' His  idea,"  said  the  President,  "was  that  it 
would  be  considered  our  last  shriek,  on  the  retreat."  (This 
was  his  precise  expression.)  "  'Now,'  continued  Mr. 
Seward,  'while  I  approve  the  measure,  I  suggest,  sir,  that 
you  postpone  its  issue,  until  you  can  give  it  to  the  country 
supported  by  military  success,  instead  of  issuing  it,  as 
would  be  the  case  now,  upon  the  greatest  disasters  of  the 
war!'  "  Mr.  Lincoln  continued:  "The  wisdom  of  the  view 
of  the  Secretary  of  State  struck  me  with  very  great  force. 
It  was  an  aspect  of  the  case  that,  in  all  my  thought  upon 
the  subject,  I  had  entirely  overlooked.  The  result  was  that 
I  put  the  draft  of  the  proclamation  aside,  as  you  do  your 
sketch  for  a  picture,  waiting  for  a  victory.  From  time  to 
time  I  added  or  changed  a  line,  touching  it  up  here  and 


Page  Eighty-eight 

there,  anxiously  watching  the  progress  of  events.  Well, 
the  next  news  we  had  was  of  Pope's  disaster,  at  Bull  Run. 
Things  looked  darker  than  ever.  Finally,  came  the  week 
of  the  battle  of  Antietam.  I  determined  to  wait  no  longer. 
The  news  came,  I  think,  on  Wednesday,  that  the  advantage 
was  on  our  side,  I  was  then  staying  at  the  Soldiers'  Home 
(three  miles  out  of  Washington).  Here  I  finished  writing 
the  second  draft  of  the  preliminary  proclamation;  came 
up  on  Saturday;  called  the  Cabinet  together  to  hear  it, 
and  it  was  published  the  following  Monday." 1 

There  are  points  in  this  statement  which  do  not 
seem  to  tally  with  the  notes  made  regarding  the 
July  cabinet  meeting  by  Secretary  Stanton.2  It 
should  be  remembered  that  Carpenter  is  reporting 
off-hand  conversation  with  Lincoln.  Both  men 
relied  very  largely  on  memory.  The  Stanton  rec- 
ord constitutes  better  evidence  as  to  what  hap- 
pened at  the  meeting  in  question,  than  any  other 
data  we  possess. 

According  to  Carpenter  Mr.  Lincoln  said  that 
changes  in  phraseology  in  the  draft  of  the  procla- 
mation were  suggested  by  Secretary  Seward.  The 
original  wording  of  Lincoln  was  to  the  effect  that 
the  government  of  the  United  States,  in  all  of  its 
branches  will  recognize  the  freedom  of  such 
negroes  as  were  included  in  the  Emancipation 
Proclamation.  Mr.  Seward  suggested  that  the 
words  "and  maintain"  be  inserted  after  the  word 


1  Six   Months  in,  the   White   House  with  Abraham   Lincoln. 
By  Frank  Carpenter,  p.  20-1-2-3. 

2  See  page  67  of  this  book. 


Page  Eighty-nine 

"recognize."  On  the  insistence  of  the  Secretary, 
the  two  words  were  inserted.  Mr.  Lincoln  ex- 
plained that  his  failure  to  employ  the  word  "main- 
tain," was  "because  it  is  not  my  way  to  promise 
what  I  was  not  entirely  sure  I  could  perform." 
In  this  statement  we  have  a  clear  revelation  of 
both  the  intellectual  and  moral  honesty  of  Presi- 
dent Lincoln. 

Seward's  suggested  addition  to  the  Proclama- 
tion was  made  at  a  cabinet  meeting  held  on  Sep- 
tember 20th,  two  days  before  the  document  of 
freedom  was  issued.  Nothing  contained  in  the 
Carpenter  story  tends  to  disprove  the  claim  that 
the  July  draft  was  Mr.  Lincoln's  individual  act, 
and  not  the  suggestion  of  any  member  of  his 
cabinet. 

It  was  in  the  latter  part  of  August  that  Owen 
Lovejoy,  who  represented  Mr.  Lincoln's  District 
in  the  Lower  House  of  Congress,  called  on  the 
President.  At  the  threshold  of  the  White  House 
he  met  Thaddeus  Stevens,  of  Pennsylvania.  Mr. 
Stevens  was  urged  to  accompany  Lovejoy,  but  de- 
clined, saying:  "No,  it  is  a  time  when  you  must 
talk  to  him  alone."  Lovejoy  says  that  the  Presi- 
dent's "expression  was  more  earnest;  the  lines 
deeper  on  his  care-worn  face,"  than  usual.  Mr. 
Lincoln  hinted  that  perhaps  he  ought  to  take  the 
field,  and  "stand  or  fall  with  the  men."  This 
proposition  was  strongly  discouraged  by  Lovejoy. 
The  position  taken  by  Greeley  in  his  "Prayer  of 

12 


Page  Ninety 

Twenty  Millions," 3  was  discussed,  and  rather  ap- 
proved by  the  Congressman.  They  talked  plainly 
over  slavery  and  the  war  situation.  Lovejoy 
urged  the  President  "to  follow  God's  warnings  as 
he  understood  them."  Mr.  Lincoln  then  made  this 
statement : 

"In  all  of  it,  if  the  Administration  or  myself — for  which 
I  assume  the  greater  responsibility — has  made  a  mistake 
about  slavery,  it  has  not  been  from  negligence  or  avoid- 
able delay.  On  the  contrary,  it  has  been  uppermost  in 
my  mind.  I  know  that  you  do  not  wish  me  to  say  more 
now  than  this.  But  I  do  want  to  assure  you  that  it  will 
be  settled,  so  far  as  I  can  determine  and  take  it,  in  the 
course  and  judgment  upon  it,  that  you  say  is  righteous 
and  just — that  it  is  God's  conflict;  that,  as  he  gives  us 
light,  .so  shall  it  be."  .  .  . 

The  interview  closed  with  a  season  of  prayer, 
in  which  Lovejoy  says,  "We  laid  our  cause  before 
God,  who  made  and  built  the  Nation,  whom  we 
have  trusted  so  long." 

There  were  other  interviews  between  the  Presi- 
dent and  his  member  of  Congress,  before  the  mem- 
orable day  in  September.  At  one  of  these  Lincoln 
seems  to  have  been  greatly  moved.  He  said  he 
had  taken  the  matter  to  God,  and  then  saw  clearly, 
as  in  a  vision,  that  slavery  was  to  be  stricken,  and 
practically  by  his  official  act.4  Then  came  An- 
tietam,  and  this  semblance  of  a  Union  victory, 

8  See  page  76  of  this  book. 

4  The  details  of  the  Lovejoy  interviews  may  be  found  in 
Abraham  Lincoln  and  the  Men  of  His  Time.  By  Robert  H. 
Brown,  M.D.  Vol.  II,  pages  673  to  686. 


Page  Ninety-one 

for  which  the  President  had  waited  as  for  the 
psychological  moment  in  which  to  issue  the  Proc- 
lamation. 

In  the  midst  of  the  opinions  and  counter  opin- 
ions regarding  Lincoln  and  emancipation,  a  new, 
if  not  a  strange  witness  appears  in  the  person  of 
the  late  George  W.  Julian,  who  says: 

"Few  subjects  have  been  more  debated  and  less  under- 
stood than  the  Proclamation  of  Emancipation.  Mr.  Lin- 
coln was  himself  opposed  to  the  measure,  and  when  he 
very  reluctantly  issued  the  preliminary  proclamation  in 
September,  1862,  he  wished  it  distinctly  understood  that 
the  deportation  of  the  slaves  was,  in  his  mind,  inseparably 
connected  with  the  policy."  5 

That  President  Lincoln  tenaciously  held  to  the 
old  Whig  party  idea  of  compensated  emancipation 
admits  of  no  doubt.  That  he  held  to  the  purpose 
of  deportation  with  any  strenuous  definiteness  at 
the  time  he  issued  the  Proclamation  is  by  no  means 
so  clear.  In  his  public  utterances,  gathered  in  the 
"Complete  Works,"  we  find  but  two  references  to 
"deportation."  One  is  in  the  famous  Cooper 
Union  speech  delivered  in  New  York,  February 
27,1860.  His  reference  is  a  clear-cut  quotation 
from  Thomas  Jefferson,  and  is  as  follows: 

"It  is  still  in  our  power  to  direct  the  process  of  eman- 
cipation and  deportation  peaceably,  and  in  such  slow  de- 
grees that  the  evil  will  wear  off  insensibly,  and  their  places 
(the  negroes)  be,  pari  passu,  filled  up  by  free  white 

5  Reminiscences  of  Abraham  Lincoln.  By  Allen  Thorndike 
Rice,  p.  61. 


Page  Ninety-two 

laborers.    If,  on  the  contrary,  it  is  left  to  force  itself  on, 
human  nature  must  shudder  at  the  prospect  held  up."  6 

That  Lincoln  in  1860,  and  long  after,  hoped  that 
freedom  might  be  slowly  and  safely  secured  is  in 
line  with  his  hopeful  and  peaceable  spirit.  It  is 
surely  suggestive  that  Jefferson  saw  what  would 
happen  in  sorrow  touching  slavery,  if  the  evil  was 
not  disposed  of  in  the  domain  of  common  sense 
and  the  common  conscience. 

The  second  reference  to  "deportation"  is  in  the 
Message  of  1862,  with  which  we  shall  deal  later 
on.  He  says : 

"This  ought  not  to  be  regarded  as  objectionable,  on  the 
one  hand  or  on  the  other,  inasmuch  as  it  comes  to  nothing 
unless  by  the  mutual  consent  of  the  people  to  be  deported 
and  the  American  voters  through  their  representatives  in 
Congress."  7 

We  leave  the  matter  of  Lincoln  and  "deporta- 
tion" to  be  passed  upon  by  the  judgment  of  the 
reader,  in  the  light  of  the  weight  of  general  evid- 
ence as  to  Lincoln's  mind  regarding  slavery,  here- 
in presented. 

*  Abraham  Lincoln.     Complete  Works.     Vol.  I,  p.  608. 
7  The  same.     Vol.  II,  p.  274. 


THE  PROCLAMATION  OF  FREEDOM 

When  the  Emancipation  Proclamation  was 
given  to  the  country  on  the  22nd  of  September, 
1862,  it  took  both  an  expectant  and  the  skeptical 
public  opinion  by  surprise,  reasonably  justifying 
those  whose  faith  in  the  President  had  never 
faltered.  It  will  be  noted  that  in  the  second  para- 
graph of  the  Proclamation  Mr.  Lincoln  reiterates 
the  position  and  purpose  contained  in  the  provi- 
sional draft  of  July  22nd.  The  strong  position 
taken  in  the  document  given  below  regarding  the 
enforcement  of  the  laws  of  Congress  relating  to 
slaves,  and  the  treatment  of  the  property  of  those 
in  rebellion  against  the  Government  of  the  United 
States,  probably  had  as  salutary  effect  upon  pub- 
lic opinion  as  the  announced  act  of  emancipation 
itself.  The  following  is  the  complete  text  of  the 
Emancipation  Proclamation : 

"I,  Abraham  Lincoln,  President  of  the  United  States  of 
America,  and  Commander-in-Chief  of  the  Army  and  Navy 
thereof,  do  hereby  proclaim  and  declare  that  hereafter,  as 
heretofore,  the  war  will  be  prosecuted  for  the  object  of 
practically  restoring  the  constitutional  relation  between 
the  United  States  and  each  of  the  States,  and  the  people 
thereof,  in  which  States  that  relation  is  or  may  be  sus- 
pended or  disturbed. 

"That  it  is  my  purpose,  upon  the  next  meeting  of  Con- 
gress, to  again  recommend  the  adoption  of  a  practical 

Page  Ninety-three 


Page  Ninety-four 

measure  tendering  pecuniary  aid  to  the  free  acceptance  or 
rejection  of  all  slave  States,  so  called,  the  people  whereof 
may  not  then  be  in  rebellion  against  the  United  States, 
and  which  States  may  then  have  voluntarily  adopted  or 
thereafter  may  voluntarily  adopt,  immediate  or  gradual 
abolishment  of  slavery  within  their  respective  limits;  and 
that  the  effort  to  colonize  persons  of  African  descent,  with 
their  consent,  upon  this  continent  or  elsewhere,  with  the 
previously  obtained  consent  of  the  governments  existing 
there,  will  be  continued. 

"That,  on  the  first  day  of  January,  in  the  year  of  our 
Lord  one  thousand  eight  hundred  and  sixty-three,  all  per- 
sons held  as  slaves  within  any  State,  or  designated  part 
of  a  State,  the  people  whereof  shall  then  be  in  rebellion 
against  the  United  States,  shall  be  then,  thenceforward, 
and  forever  free;  and  the  Executive  Government  of  the 
United  States,  including  the  military  and  naval  authority 
thereof,  will  recognize  and  maintain  the  freedom  of  such 
persons,  and  will  do  no  act  or  acts  to  repress  such  per- 
sons, or  any  of  them,  in  any  efforts  they  may  make  for 
their  actual  freedom. 

"That  the  Executive  will,  on  the  1st  day  of  January 
aforesaid,  by  proclamation,  designate  the  States  and  parts 
of  States,  if  any,  in  which  the  people  thereof  respectively 
shall  then  be  in  rebellion  against  the  United  States;  and 
the  fact  that  any  State,  or  the  people  thereof,  shall  on  that 
day  be  in  good  faith  represented  in  the  Congress  of  the 
United  States,  by  members  chosen  thereto  at  elections 
wherein  a  majority  of  the  qualified  voters  of  such  State 
shall  have  participated,  shall,  in  the  absence  of  strong 
countervailing  testimony,  be  deemed  conclusive  evidence 
that  such  State,  and  the  people  thereof,  are  not  then  in 
rebellion  against  the  United  States. 

"That  attention  is  hereby  called  to  an  act  of  Congress 
entitled  'An  Act  to  make  an  additional  Article  of  War,' 


Page  Ninety-five 

approved  March  13,  1862;   and  which  act  is  in  the  words 
and  figures  following : 

"  'Be  it  enacted  by  the  Senate  and  House  of 
Representatives  of  the  United  States  of  America 
in  Congress  assembled,  That  hereafter  the  fol- 
lowing shall  be  promulgated  as  an  additional 
article  of  war  for  the  government  of  the  Army 
of  the  United  States,  and  shall  be  obeyed  and  ob- 
served as  such: 

"  'SECTION  1.  All  officers  or  persons  in  the 
military  or  naval  service  of  the  United  States  are 
prohibited  from  employing  any  of  the  forces  under 
their  respective  commands  for  the  purpose  of  re- 
turning fugitives  from  service  or  labor  who  may 
have  escaped  from  any  persons  to  whom  such 
service  or  labor  is  claimed  to  be  due;  and  any 
officer  who  shall  be  found  guilty  by  a  court- 
martial  of  violating  this  article  shall  be  dismissed 
from  the  service. 

"  'SEC.  2.  And  be  it  further  enacted,  That  this 
act  shall  take  effect  from  and  after  its  passage.' 

"Also,  to  the  ninth  and  tenth  sections  of  an  act  en- 
titled 'An  Act  to  Suppress  Insurrection,  to  Punish  Trea- 
son and  Rebellion,  to  Seize  and  Confiscate  Property  of 
Rebels,  and  for  other  Purposes,'  approved  July  16,  1862; 
and  which  sections  are  in  the  words  and  figures  fol- 
lowing: 

"  'SEC.  9.  And  be  it  further  enacted,  That  all 
slaves  of  persons  who  shall  hereafter  be  engaged 
in  rebellion  against  the  Government  of  the  United 
States,  or  who  shall  in  any  way  give  aid  or  com- 
fort thereto,  escaping  from  such  persons  and  tak- 
ing refuge  within  the  lines  of  the  army;  and  all 
slaves  captured  from  such  persons,  or  deserted  by 
them  and  coming  under  the  control  of  the  Gov- 
ernment of  the  United  States;  and  all  slaves  of 
such  persons  found  on  (or)  being  within  any  place 
occupied  by  Rebel  forces  and  afterward  occupied 
by  forces  of  the  United  States,  shall  be  deemed 
captives  of  war,  and  shall  be  forever  free  of  their 
servitude,  and  not  again  held  as  slaves. 


Page  Ninety-six 

"  'SEC.  10.  And  be  it  further  enacted,  That  no 
slave  escaping  into  any  State,  Territory,  or  the 
District  of  Columbia,  from  any  other  State,  shall 
be  delivered  up,  or  in  any  way  impeded  or  hin- 
dered of  his  liberty,  except  for  crime,  or  same 
offense  against  the  laws,  unless  the  person  claim- 
ing said  fugitive  shall  first  make  oath  that  the 
person  to  whom  the  labor  or  service  of  such  fugi- 
tive is  alleged  to  be  due  is  his  lawful  owner,  and 
has  not  borne  arms  against  the  United  States  in 
the  present  Rebellion,  nor  in  any  way  given  aid 
and  comfort  thereto;  and  no  person  engaged  in 
the  military  or  naval  service  of  the  United  States 
shall,  under  any  pretense  whatever,  assume  to  de- 
cide on  the  validity  of  the  claim  of  any  person 
to  the  service  or  labor  of  any  other  person,  or 
surrender  up  any  such  person  to  the  claimant, 
on  pain  of  being  dismissed  from  the  service.' 

"And  I  do  hereby  enjoin  upon  and  order  all  persons 
engaged  in  the  military  and  naval  service  of  the  United 
States  to  observe,  obey,  and  enforce,  within  their  re- 
spective spheres  of  service,  the  act  and  sections  above 
recited. 

"And  the  Executive  will,  in  due  time,  recommend  that 
all  citizens  of  the  United  States,  who  shall  have  remained 
loyal  thereto  throughout  the  Rebellion,  shall  (upon  the 
restoration  of  the  constitutional  relation  between  the 
United  States  and  their  respective  States  and  people,  if 
that  relation  shall  have  been  suspended  or  disturbed)  be 
compensated  for  all  losses  by  acts  of  the  United  States, 
including  the  loss  of  slaves. 

"In  witness  whereof,  I  have  hereunto  set  my  hand  and 
caused  the  seal  of  the  United  States  to  be  affixed. 

"Done  at  the  City  of  Washington,  this  twenty-second 
day  of  September,  in  the  year  of  our  Lord  one  thousand 
eight  hundred  and  sixty-two,  and  of  the  independence  of 
the  United  States  the  eighty-seventh. 

"ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

"By  the  President: 

"WILLIAM  H.  SEWARD,  Secretary  of  State." 


Page  Ninety-seven 

It  will  be  noted  that  the  long-time  position  of 
Mr.  Lincoln  in  behalf  of  compensation  to  loyal 
slaveholders,  is  prominent  in  the  document  quoted 
above.  It  was  the  flea  in  the  ointment  in  the  es- 
timation of  the  advanced  abolitionists. 

It  appears  that  the  foregoing  proclamation  was 
considered  by  Mr.  Lincoln  simply  the  necessary 
and  logical  result  of  what  the  members  of  his 
cabinet  knew  had  been  on  his  mind  for  two 
months.  Secretary  Chase  says  that  Mr.  Lincoln 
told  them  that  he  did  not  wish  their  "advice  about 
the  main  matter,  for  that  I  have  determined  for 
myself."  All  that  he  intimated  he  desired  was 
suggestions  as  to  phraseology. 

From  published  statements  of  Secretary  of  the 
Navy  Wells,  it  seems  that  the  Stanton  notes  on  the 
cabinet  meeting  of  July  22,  as  to  those  who 
opposed  the  Proclamation,  are  substantially  cor- 
rect. At  the  final  meeting  of  the  cabinet,  Septem- 
ber 22,  there  was  a  practical  agreement  as  to  the 
policy  of  emancipation,  although  Postmaster  Gen- 
eral Blair  objected  to  the  time  fixed.  But  no  objec- 
tions were  filed  by  him,  "lest  they  should  be  sub- 
ject to  misconstruction." 

When  the  Proclamation  was  read  in  Washing- 
ton, a  profound  interest  was  manifested.  On  the 
evening  of  the  24th  the  President  was  serenaded 
at  the  White  House.  Being  called  upon  for  a 
speech,  he  very  briefly  responded  as  follows : 

"I  appear  before  you  to  do  little  more  than  acknowledge 
the  courtesy  you  pay  me,  and  to  thank  you  for  it.  I 

13 


Page  Ninety-eight 

have  not  been  distinctly  informed  why  it  is  that  on  this 
occasion  you  appear  to  do  me  this  honor,  though  I  sup- 
pose it  is  because  of  the  Proclamation.  What  I  did,  I 
did  after  a  very  full  deliberation,  and  under  a  very  heavy 
and  solemn  sense  of  responsibility.  I  can  only  trust  in 
God  I  have  made  no  mistake.  I  shall  make  no  attempt 
on  this  occasion  to  sustain  what  I  have  done  or  said  by 
any  comment.  It  is  now  for  the  country  and  the  world 
to  pass  judgment,  and  maybe  take  action  upon  it." 

Thus  modestly  and  gently  did  the  author  of  the 
Emancipation  Proclamation  consign  his  great  act 
to  the  judgment  of  his  own  generation  and 
posterity. 


THE  PROCLAMATION'S  RECEPTION     • 

A  perfect  confusion  of  tongues  followed  the 
publication  of  the  President's  Proclamation.  The 
Republican  newspapers  joined  in  a  general  chorus 
of  praise,  and  in  the  main  the  religious  news- 
papers were  equally  strong  in  their  approval. 
The  ultra  Democratic  press,  which  had  given  aid 
and  comfort  to  the  Nation's  enemy  in  the  field,  by 
building  a  back-fire  of  opinion  against  the  admin- 
istration of  Mr.  Lincoln,  distributed  literature 
more  or  less  frenzied,  and  put  out  prophesies  of 
evil  without  stint.  It  is  pretty  certain  that  both 
the  President's  friends  and  foes  expected  too  much 
of  the  Proclamation,  more  in  fact  than  it  could 
possibly  accomplish  in  either  direction. 

Among  the  newspapers  in  the  North  which  per- 
sisted in  rendering  a  sixteenth  century  opinion, 
the  New  York  World  was  very  near  the  head  of 
the  class.  It  declared  that  "President  Lincoln  has 
swung  loose  from  the  constitutional  moorings  of 
his  inaugural  address.  *  *  *  We  regret  for  his 
sake,  we  lament  for  the  sake  of  the  country,  that 
he  has  been  coerced  by  the  insanity  of  the  radicals, 
by  the  denunciation  of  their  presses,  by  the  threats 
of  their  Governors  and  Senators  that  he  should 
resign,  into  a  proclamation  which  on  its  face 

Page  Ninety-nine 


Page  One  Hundred 

violates  the  Constitution,  is  contrary  to  the  gen- 
eral current  of  civilization  in  the  conduct  of  war 
as  it  has  run  since  the  Crusades,  is  in  opposition  to 
the  solemn  declarations  made  by  our  government 
that  it  was  not  to  be  a  war  of  subjugation."  It 
should  be  noted  that  the  assumption  that  if  the 
forces  of  the  Union  persisted  in  intending  to 
defeat  the  armies  of  the  Confederacy,  the  whole 
transaction  became  a  "war  of  subjugation,"  was 
the  pet  plea  of  many  Democratic  orators  and 
organs  during  the  four  years  of  our  National 
struggle. 

Several  newspapers  in  New  York,  and  some  in 
Massachusetts,  Pennsylvania,  and  other  Northern 
States,  either  opposed  the  Proclamation,  or  at- 
tempted to  ridicule  it  out  of  court.  Some  of  the 
critics  like  the  New  York  Journal  of  Commerce, 
considered  themselves,  and  those  they  repre- 
sented, the  divinely  appointed  saviors  of  the 
country,  from  the  wrath  and  ruin  of  the  radicals. 
This  paper  thus  patted  itself  and  its  friends  on 
the  back:  "We  must  not  betray  the  trust  con- 
fided in  us  by  God,  for  as  surely  as  he  reigns,  the 
hope  of  America  to-day  is,  under  him,  only  in  the 
conservative  men  of  the  North;  and  our  duty  to 
him  demands  that  we  stand  firm  to  sustain  the 
great  responsibility,  when  radicalism,  failing, 
sinks  crushed,  as  it  will  now  within  a  brief 
period." 


Page  One  Hundred-one 

Opposition  to  the  Proclamation  in  Pennsylvania 
was  well  represented  by  the  Harrisburg  Union, 
which  said : 

"Greeley,  Sumner  &  Co.  have  triumphed.  Abolition  is 
rampant  in  the  Administration,  in  Congress,  wherever 
their  influence  could  prevail.  The  proclamation  of  the 
President  is  an  outrage  upon  the  humanity  and  good 
sense  of  the  country,  to  say  nothing  of  its  gross  uncon- 
stitutionality." 

It  is  worth  noting  that  regarding  allegiance  to 
the  Republican  party,  the  Keystone  State  halted 
between  two  opinions,  until  the  economic  issue  had 
become  dominant,  as  practically  affecting  the 
State's  industrial  interests. 

On  the  Confederate  side  of  the  line  there  was 
what  amounted  to  a  hysteria  of  madness  regard- 
ing Mr.  Lincoln's  Proclamation.  A  resolution  was 
introduced  in  the  Confederate  Senate,  September 
29,  1862,  pronouncing  the  document  "a  gross 
violation  of  the  usages  of  civilized  warfare,"  and 
an  act  which  should  be  "held  up  to  the  execration 
of  mankind,  and  counteracted  by  such  severe  re- 
taliatory measures  as  in  the  judgment  of  the 
President  (Jefferson  Davis),  may  be  best  calcu- 
lated to  secure  its  withdrawal  or  arrest  its 
execution." 

This  was  considered  too  mild  by  the  fire-eaters. 
Mr.  Clark,  who  seems  to  have  come  from  Missouri, 
said  "He  thought  the  President  should  be  author- 
ized immediately  to  proclaim  that  every  person 


Page  One  Hundred-two 

found  in  arms  against  the  Confederate  govern- 
ment and  its  institutions,  on  our  soil  should  be 
put  to  death." 

All  sorts  of  retaliatory  measures  were  sug- 
gested, among  them  the  following : 

"Every  white  person  who  shall  act  as  a  commissioned 
or  non-commissioned  officer  commanding  negroes  or  mulat- 
toes  against  the  Confederate  States,  or  who  shall  arm, 
organize,  train  or  prepare  negroes  or  mulattoes  for  mili- 
tary service,  or  aid  them  in  any  military  enterprise 
against  the  Confederate  States,  shall,  if  captured,  suffer 
death." 

The  Southern  newspapers  wasted  no  choice 
language  in  condemning  the  Proclamation.  The 
Richmond  Inquirer  of  Oct.  1,  1862,  among  other 
things,  said: 

"Butler  has  been  called  infamous;  by  common  consent 
he  is  known  as  the  beast.  But  Butler  is  a  saint  compared 
to  his  master.  In  addition  to  all  that  Butler  authorized, 
Lincoln  adds  butchery — even  the  butchery  of  babes.  Lan- 
guage is  too  poor  to  furnish  a  name  suitable  for  such  a 
character.  Nay,  the  whole  catalogue  of  dishonoring  epi- 
thets is  not  sufficient  to  do  justice  to  it.  'Murder'  is  a 
term  of  honor  compared  to  Lincoln's  crime." 

Possibly  the  Richmond  Dispatch  of  Sept.  30, 
was  a  little  less  hysterical,  but  it  was  none  the  less 
positive  in  condemning  the  act  of  Emancipation. 
It  declared  that  Mr.  Lincoln's  act  had  utterly 
prostrated  "the  last  remnant  of  what  used  with 
so  much  unction  to  be  termed  by  the  canting 
knaves  of  New  England,  'the  bulwark  of  our  liber- 


Page  One  Hundred-three 

ties' — we  mean  the  ridiculous  old  Constitution  of 
the  United  States."  Speaking  of  the  North,  the 
Dispatch  said : 

"Eager  as  they  may  be  to  cut  each  others'  throats,  they 
are  still  more  eager  to  cut  ours,  and  to  that  pious  work, 
we  may  be  assured,  they  will  devote  themselves  with  all 
their  energy.  They  are  already  calling  for  a  million  more 
of  men,  and  the  probability  is  that  they  will  have  them 
long  before  Christmas.  We  must  make  up  our  minds  to 
meet  these  men,  and  to  beat  them,  as  we  both  can  and 
will  if  they  come  here." 


LOYAL  OPINION 

On  the  24th  of  September,  the  governors  of  a 
number  of  loyal  States  met  in  conference  at 
Altoona,  Pa.  It  was  assumed  and  asserted  by 
some  critics  that  the  knowledge  of  this  gathering 
on  the  part  of  the  President,  hastened  the  Procla- 
mation. But  there  is  the  best  of  reasons  for  dis- 
puting this  assumption.  Mr.  Lincoln  himself 
declared  that  he  never  thought  of  the  meeting  of 
the  governors.  Besides  the  state  executives 
denied  any  idea  of  a  "political  plot."  Neverthe- 
less the  meeting  of  the  governors  was  opportune. 

An  address  was  issued  and  signed,  the  signa- 
tures having  been  secured  by  mail  after  the  con- 
ference had  adjourned.  There  was  no  disagree- 
ment regarding  the  major  propositions  of  the 
address,  but  the  endorsement  of  the  emancipa- 
tion policy  of  the  President  was  objected  to  by 
the  governors  of  New  Jersey,  Maryland,  Ken- 
tucky, and  Missouri,  and  was  therefore  not  signed 
by  them.  It  was  signed  by  the  executives  of 
twelve  States.  The  address  expressed  hearty  de- 
votion to  the  Union,  and  pledged  earnest  support 
to  the  President  in  overthrowing  the  rebellion. 

As  a  matter  of  course  one  of  the  most  interest- 
ing things  to  consider  at  the  time  was  the  attitude 
of  the  rank  and  file  of  the  Union  Army  toward 
emancipation.  There  we  are  confronted  by  the 
same  confusion  of  opinion  as  existed  among  civ- 
Page  One  Hundred-four 


Page  One  Hundred-five 

• 

ilians.  Newspapers  like  Greeley's  Tribune  were 
sure  that  "The  proclamation  of  the  President  has 
electrified  the  army."  A  correspondent  of  the 
New  York  Times,  quoted  in  the  Anti-Slavery 
Standard  of  October  4th,  told  of  a  commissioned 
officer  who  threatened  to  resign  because  of  the 
President's  act,  while  others  proposed  to  measure 
its  value  according  as  it  helped  enlistments,  and  so 
contributed  to  a  succession  of  victories  necessary 
to  put  down  the  war.  The  Boston  Journal,  de- 
scribed by  the  Standard,  as  "one  of  the  most  con- 
servative papers  of  the  country,"  after  careful 
investigation,  made  the  following  estimate  of  the 
situation : 

"The  evidence  is  abundant,  and  we  think  conclusive, 
that  the  soldiers  belonging  to  the  old  regiments  who  have 
been  longest  in  the  field,  and  who,  from  observation  and 
experience,  have  learned  to  estimate  the  strength  which 
slavery  has  given  to  the  rebels,  are  in  favor  of  emanci- 
pating the  slaves  upon  military  grounds.  .  .  .  We 
doubt  not  that  efforts  will  be  made  to  sow  the  seeds  of 
discord  in  the  army;  but  we  are  confident  that  these  will 
take  root  in  none  of  the  old  regiments."  1 

A  letter  written  on  the  battle-field  of  Antietam 
the  day  after  the  Proclamation  was  received, 
shows  conclusively  that  a  considerable  element  in 
the  army,  presumably  the  "old  guard,"  surely  the 
men  from  New  England,  welcomed  the  news  with 
rejoicing,  and  believed  that  it  was  really  the 
beginning  of  the  end  of  the  war. 

1  National  Anti-Slavery  Standard.     October  4,  1862,  p.  2. 

14 


Page  One  Hundred-six 

The  newspapers  which  sustained  President 
Lincoln  in  issuing  the  Proclamation  were  many. 
In  the  cities  alone,  two  issues  of  the  Anti-Slavery 
Standard  and  Garrison's  Liberator  contained  ap- 
proving comments  from  about  forty-six  journals, 
a  number  of  which  did  not  support  the  Repub- 
lican party  in  1860,  and  consequently  did  not  favor 
the  election  of  Mr.  Lincoln.  But  after  all  the  most 
important  journalistic  support  which  the  admin- 
istration received  from  the  beginning  of  the  war 
until  its  end,  was  from  local  country  newspapers, 
unknown  outside  of  the  communities  in  which  they 
were  published.  At  that  time  the  cheap  daily 
paper  had  not  invaded  the  rural  communities. 
There  were  multitudes  of  newspapers  in  towns 
and  villages,  individually  of  small  circulation,  but 
dominated  by  conviction  and  moral  earnestness, 
and  these  performed  a  valuable  service  in  main- 
taining a  correct  public  sentiment  almost  unmeas- 
urable.  The  work  of  the  country  press  in  behalf 
of  freedom  and  union,  has  never  been  adequately 
recognized  by  the  historians  of  the  period.  The 
influence  of  such  papers  as  Greeley's  Tribune  was 
of  course  very  great.  But  what  they  did  in  a 
considerable  measure  was  done  indirectly  through 
the  rural  press,  which  restated,  emphasized,  and 
gave  local  color  and  support  to  the  facts  and  argu- 
ments which  the  journals  of  larger  circulation 
brought  to  the  sanctums  of  the  local  editors 
either  every  day  or  twice  a  week. 


Page  One  Hundred-seven 

We  can  not  do  better  then  to  close  this  incom- 
plete review  of  comment  on  Mr.  Lincoln's  Procla- 
mation, with  brief  opinions  from  the  two  anti- 
slavery  newspaper  advocates  of  the  period.  The 
Anti-Slavery  Standard  said  editorially : 

"While  we  regret  that  for  the  safety  and  honor  of  an 
imperilled  Nation,  the  President  did  not  see  his  way  clear 
to  proclaim  the  immediate  and  unconditional  emancipation 
of  every  slave  on  American  soil;  we  nevertheless  rejoice 
with  an  unspeakable  joy  that  he  has  at  last  openly  com- 
mitted himself  to  a  measure  which,  if  carried  out  in  good 
faith,  as  we  trust  it  will  be,  must  insure  the  speedy  destruc- 
tion of  the  slave  system,  and  give  us  a  country  free  from 
the  damning  reproach  of  making  merchandise  of  the  chil- 
dren of  God.  If  the  object  for  which  the  Abolitionists  have 
so  long  prayed  and  struggled  shall  be  thus  attained,  they 
will  indeed  have  cause  for  exultation  such  as  rarely  falls 
to  the  lot  of  reformers  in  this  world,  and  putting  off  the 
harness,  the  toil-worn  veterans  in  freedom's  cause  may 
say,  in  the  words  of  Simeon,  'Lord,  now  lettest  thy  servant 
depart  in  peace,  for  mine  eyes  have  seen  thy  salvation.' "  * 

Mr.  Garrison  was  very  guarded  in  the  praise 
which  he  bestowed  on  President  Lincoln's  act.  He 
said: 

"Though  we  believe  that  this  Proclamation  is  not  all 
that  the  exigencies  of  the  times,  and  the  consequent  duty 
of  the  government  require — and  are  consequently  not  so 
jubilant  over  it  as  many  others — still  it  is  an  important 
step  in  the  right  direction,  and  an  act  of  immense  historic 
consequence,  and  justifies  the  almost  universal  gladness  of 
expression  and  warm  congratulation  which  it  has  simul- 
taneously elicited  in  every  part  of  the  free  states." 2 

1  National  Anti-Slavery  Standard,  September  27,  1862,  p.  2. 
8  The  Liberator,  September  26,  1862,  p.  2. 


Page  One  Hundred-eight 

The  Liberator  feared  that  the  lapse  of  time 
would  "enable  Jeff.  Davis  and  his  traitorous  Con- 
federates to  anticipate  the  measure  themselves, 
and  thus  secure  their  independence  by  foreign  in- 
tervention. It  also  vigorously  condemned  the  Pro- 
clamation's overture  to  the  slave  states  to  sell 
their  slave  system  at  a  bargain — and  its  mean, 
absurd  and  proscriptive  device  to  expatriate  the 
colored  population  from  this  their  native  land." 


BEFORE  AND  AFTER  EMANCIPATION 

That  President  Lincoln  was  the  most  accurate 
reader  of  public  opinion  among  public  men  of  the 
Civil  War  period  is  now  plain,  and  should  have 
been  recognized  by  his  cotemporaries  better  than 
it  was.  Whatever  the  impatient  may  have 
thought,  or  those  bent  on  quarreling  with  the 
President  may  have  imagined,  it  is  clear  that  Mr. 
Lincoln  was  ahead  and  not  behind  the  average 
available  public  sentiment  of  the  North  on  the 
slavery  question  from  the  time  he  became  Presi- 
dent, up  to  and  following  the  Emancipation  Proc- 
lamation. 

We  have  seen  that  Mr.  Lincoln  contemplated  is- 
suing the  Proclamation  in  July  1862.  There  may 
have  been  as  many  political  as  there  were  military 
reasons  for  postponing  such  action.  At  any  rate, 
the  conventions  of  the  party  opposing  the  Admin- 
istration took  action  that  could  not  fail  to  make 
a  careful  man  think  twice  before  acting  in  such 
a  momentous  matter. 

The  Democratic  State  Conventions  of  1862  met 
the  Fourth  of  July  in  both  Pennsylvania  and  Ohio. 
Here  is  an  extract  from  the  platform  adopted  by 
the  Keystone  Democrats : 

"The  party  of  fanaticism  or  crime,  whichever  it  may  be 
called,  that  seeks  to  turn  loose  the  slaves  to  overrun  the 
North,  and  to  enter  into  competition  with  the  white  labor- 
Page  One  Hundred-nine 


Page  One  Hundred-tea 

ing  masses,  thus  degrading  their  manhood,  by  placing  them 
on  an  equality  with  negroes,  is  insulting  to  our  race,  and 
merits  our  most  emphatic  and  unqualified  condemnation."  * 

Ohio  Democrats  practically  seconded  the  con- 
duct of  their  brethren  in  Pennsylvania,  while  in 
Indiana  they  were  equally  vehement  against  free- 
ing the  slaves.  In  addition  they  declared  that 
government  in  Indiana,  in  particular,  was  for 
white  men,  not  for  black  men.  New  York  Demo- 
crates  did  not  talk  as  bluntly  as  those  mentioned, 
but  their  hearts  beat  as  one  with  all  those  who 
were  trying  to  bring  the  administration  into  con- 
tempt, and  restore  the  Union,  if  at  all,  with 
slavery  intact.  With  all  these  indications  of  a 
public  sentiment  in  four  great  Northern  states, 
bent  on  building  a  backfire  to  embarrass  the  ad- 
ministration, it  is  not  strange  that  Mr.  Lincoln 
waited  for  the  psychological  moment  in  which  to 
make  his  last  moral  move  against  the  Rebellion. 

Still  the  unwisely  optimistic,  and  the  ultra  op- 
ponents of  slavery,  all  through  the  summer  of 
1862,  insisted  that  the  time  for  emancipation  was 
overdue,  and  that  there  was  plenty  of  sentiment 
in  the  country  to  sustain  the  President  should  he 
so  act.  No  better  sample  of  the  attitude  of  the 
impatient  can  be  found  than  the  following: 

"The  President,  whose  authority  was  ample  to  decree 
the  abolition  of  slavery  from  the  very  commencement  of 
the  rebellion,  and  whose  influence  (such  divinity  doth  hedge 

1  Twenty  Years  of  Congress.  By  James  G.  Elaine.  Vol.  1, 
p.  436. 


Page  One  Hundred«-eleven 

the  chief  of  a  nation)   would  have  sufficed  to  unite  the 
nation  into  carrying  it  into  effect,  refrained  from  action." a 

What  is  called  "influence"  in  this  paragraph, 
in  the  large  and  persuasive  sense  of  that  word 
was  never  possessed  by  any  President  of  the 
United  States.  President  Lincoln's  growing  in- 
fluence came  because  he  did  not  act  on  the  assump- 
tion that  a  man  may  wisely  do  whatever  power 
permits  him  to  do.  All  his  influence  could  have 
been  killed  had  he  simply  been  bent  on  driving 
emancipation  through  any  way. 

But  the  elections  of  1862  proved  conclusively 
that  Mr.  Lincoln  was  really  ahead  of  average  pub- 
lic sentiment.  New  York  and  New  Jersey  elected 
governors  opposed  to  the  National  Administra- 
tion and  its  policies.  In  the  Congressional  and 
State  elections  adverse  administration  majorities 
were  given  in  Pennsylvania,  Ohio,  Indiana,  and 
Illinois,  while  Michigan,  Wisconsin,  Iowa,  and 
Minnesota  gave  such  reduced  Republican  major- 
ities as  to  be  suggestive  if  not  alarming. 

The  Congressional  elections  were  also  freighted 
with  disappointment  for  the  administration.  In 
the  states  including  New  York  and  west  to  Minn- 
esota, the  Republicans  lost  21  representatives, 
While  the  Republican  majority  of  64  in  the  Lower 
House  of  Congress  dropped  from  64  to  27.  But 
for  the  almost  solid  support  the  administration 

2  Editorial  in  National  Anti-Slavery  Standard,  July  19,  1862, 
p.  2,  col.  2. 


Page  One  Hundred-twelve 

received  in  New  England,  an  opposition  House 
might  have  been  elected  to  hamper  Mr.  Lincoln. 

It  should  be  said,  however,  that  other  issues 
and  interests  operated  to  cut  down  support  for 
the  administration,  but  possibly  no  campaign  cry 
was  more  effective  than  the  charge  that  there  had 
been  a  "Perversion  of  the  War  for  the  Union  into 
a  War  for  the  Negro."  Objections  to  conscrip- 
tion, the  weight  of  increasing  taxation,  the  cur- 
rency, and  the  "high  cost  of  living,"  by  no  means 
a  purely  twentieth  century  complaint,  all  helped 
furnish  excuses  for  a  vote  against  the  administra- 
tion. 

Those  who  imagine  that  anything  like  a  domi- 
nant anti-slavery,  or  emancipation  opinion  existed 
in  the  North  in  1862,  base  their  opinion  on  insuffi- 
cient data.  Even  Horace  Greeley,  who  did  all  in 
his  power  to  push  the  President  forward  before 
"the  fullness  of  time,"  makes  this  suggestive  ad- 
mission : 

"It  is  quite  probable  that,  had  a  popular  election  been 
held  at  any  time  during  the  year  following  the  Fourth  of 
July,  1862,  on  the  question  of  continuing  the  War  or 
arresting  it  on  the  best  attainable  terms,  a  majority  would 
have  voted  for  Peace;  while  it  is  highly  probable  that  a 
still  larger  majority  would  have  voted  against  Emancipa- 
tion." • 

If  such  was  the  uncertain  if  not  hostile  attitude 
of  the  public  mind  toward  emancipation,  the  mys- 

3  The  American  Conflict.    By  Horace  Greeley.    Vol.  II,  p.  254. 


Page  One  Hundred-thirteen 

tery  is,  why  did  those  who  thus  saw  the  situa- 
tion, persist  in  forcing  Mr.  Lincoln's  hand  in  the 
matter?  Those  whose  memories  go  back  to  the 
Civil  War  period  will,  we  fancy,  agree  with 
Greeley's  statement,  although  they  will  probably 
not  be  able  to  answer  the  question  propounded 
above. 


15 


THE  MESSAGE  OF  1862 

On  the  first  Monday  in  December,  1862,  Presi- 
dent Lincoln  sent  his  second  annual  message  to 
Congress.  It  was  variously  received,  but  two 
classes  of  people  objected  to  it.  Those  who 
wanted  the  Union  restored  "as  it  was"  did  not 
like  it,  and  the  radical  abolitionists  criticised  it 
severely.  The  real  scope  and  meaning  of  the  mes- 
sage was  evidently  not  understood  by  the  people 
at  large  at  the  time.  It  is  given  small  attention 
by  some  of  Lincoln's  early  biographers,  and  yet 
it  now  appears  one  of  the  most  suggestive  docu- 
ments of  Lincoln's  official  life. 

This  message  referred  briefly  to  the  coloniza- 
tion scheme  which  had  been  passed  by  Congress, 
and  Mr.  Lincoln  admitted  that  it  had  not  been  a 
satisfactory  success.  Quoting  the  initial  draft  of 
the  Emancipation  Proclamation,  he  launched  a 
new  compensated  emancipation  scheme.  This 
was  formulated  as  a  suggested  amendment  to  the 
United  States  Constitution.  It  provided  that  any 
state  which  should  abolish  slavery  before  the  year 
one  thousand  nine  hundred,  should  receive  com- 
pensation for  its  slaves  in  the  shape  of  interest- 
bearing  Government  bonds.  All  slaves,  however, 
that  had  been  freed  by  the  chances  of  war,  at  any 
time  before  the  end  of  the  Rebellion,  were  to  be 
forever  free,  but  the  loyal  owners  of  such  slaves 

Page  One  Hundred-fourteen 


Page  One  Hundred-fifteen 

were  to  be  compensated  for  their  human  property. 
The  amended  constitution  also  empowered  Con- 
gress to  provide  the  ways  and  means  for  the 
colonization  of  emancipated  colored  people,  with 
their  own  consent,  somewhere  outside  the  terri- 
tory of  the  United  States. 

Throughout  the  message  there  runs  a  deep 
desire  to  be  not  only  just  but  generous  to  the 
holders  of  slaves,  and  to  produce  freedom  under 
such  guarded  conditions  as  to  make  the  least  pos- 
sible disturbance  in  the  social  or  economic  life 
of  the  people.  Mr.  Lincoln  believed  that  sudden 
changes  in  human  relationships  were  not  desir- 
able, and  were  often  the  causes  of  serious  diffi- 
culty. 

The  President  quite  fully  dealt  with  the  "Fu- 
ture of  Emancipated  Slaves,"  and  took  up  some  of 
the  suggested  and  imaginery  dangers  to  follow  in 
the  wake  of  freedom.  He  declared  that  as  free 
men  negroes  would  be  a  no  greater  economic 
menace  than  they  had  been  as  slaves,  and  he  held 
that  emancipation,  even  without  deportation, 
would  probably  enhance  the  wages  of  white  labor. 

Quite  unconsciously  of  course  Mr.  Lincoln  antic- 
ipated conditions  which  have  appeared  at  various 
times  since  the  Civil  War.  The  people  in  the  North 
declared  that  the  old  free  states  would  be  overrun 
by  emancipated  slaves.  Mr.  Lincoln  dealt  with 
this  prediction  by  asking  this  question:  "Why 
should  emancipation  South  send  the  freed  people 
North?  People  of  any  color  seldom  run,  unless 


Page  One  Hundred-sixteen 

there  is  something  to  run  from."  Mr.  Lincoln 
did  not  see  that  the  negroes  in  the  South  under 
freedom  would  find  anything  to  run  from.  But 
finding  social,  economic,  and  political  injustice, 
they  did  run  from  their  old  homes,  as  the  in- 
creasing black  population  in  Northern  cities  abun- 
dantly shows. 

The  breadth  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  mind  was  shown 
in  more  ways  than  one  in  this  message.  It  was 
issued  within  a  month  of  the  time  when  the  final 
and  effective  Emancipation  Proclamation  was  due. 
It  was  the  evident  purpose  of  the  President  to  do 
everything  in  his  power  to  remove  the  causes  of 
bitterness  which  would  follow  compulsory  eman- 
cipation. From  our  present  vantage  ground  it 
looks  as  if  he  felt  that  if  every  reasonable  proffer 
he  made  was  ignored  or  declined,  responsibility 
for  what  might  happen  in  the  future  would  pass 
from  him  to  those  who  declined  to  meet  him  half 
way.  As  showing  Mr.  Lincoln's  ability  to  see  all 
around  a  situation  by  considering  both  sides  of 
a  question,  we  have  only  to  consult  this  message. 
In  it  he  practically  declared  that  the  North  as  well 
as  the  South  was  responsible  for  the  existence  and 
the  continuation  of  slavery  in  the  Republic,  and 
without  ignoring  the  bad  part  played  by  the  South 
in  the  Civil  War,  he  felt  that  a  lasting  and  satis- 
factory freedom  could  be  secured  by  both  sections 
of  the  country.  That  he  believed  his  plan  of  com- 
pensation would  be  accepted  may  be  doubted  from 
the  body  of  facts  which  we  possess. 


Page  One  Hundred-seventeen 

Among  the  severest  critics  of  the  message  of 
1862  was  William  Lloyd  Garrison's  Liberator. 
It  not  only  found  fault  with  the  matter  of  the 
document,  but  with  its  manner.  It  seemed  to 
Garrison  that  the  President  was  taking  a  back 
track  on  the  slavery  question;  The  Liberator  did 
not  comprehend  Lincoln's  viewpoint,  and  was  so 
intent  on  the  ethics  involved  in  the  case,  that  it 
saw  literary  defects  where  it  fancied  there  was 
moral  terpitude.  Regarding  this  message,  among 
other  things  The  Liberator  said: 

"In  the  first  place,  we  maintain  that,  whatever  may  be 
his  natural  ability,  the  President  is  not  competent  to  write 
his  own  official  papers.  It  is  evident  that  they  are  all  from 
his  pen;  for  they  all  bear  the  same  marks  of  crudeness, 
incongruity,  feebleness  and  lack  of  method.  There  is  no 
parallel  to  them  among  the  state  documents  to  be  found 
in  any  nation."1 

So  much  for  a  criticism  of  Lincoln's  style  which 
time  has  proven  unwarranted,  and  which  com- 
petent unprejudiced  cotemporaneous  opinion 
should  have  repudiated. 

Isaac  N.  Arnold,  member  of  Congress  from 
Illinois,  in  passing  upon  the  same  message,  said: 

"In  accordance  with  the  second  paragraph  of  the  procla- 
mation, in  language  which  for  statesmanlike  views,  and 
clearness  of  statement,  will  compare  favorably  with  any 
State  paper  in  American  Annals,  he  recalled  to  the  atten- 
tion of  Congress  the  proposition  of  'compensated  emancipa- 
tion.^  

1  The  Liberator,  December  5,  1862,  p.  2,  col.  4. 

2  The   History   of   Abraham    Lincoln,   and   the   Overthrow   of 
Slavery.     By  Isaac  N.  Arnold,  p.  369. 


Page  One  Hundred-eighteen 

If  any  evidence  is  needed  of  the  inability  of 
radical  abolition  prejudice  to  understand  Mr. 
Lincoln's  motives,  or  to  measure  his  intellectual 
capacity  and  moral  responsibility,  it  can  be  found 
in  the  following  paragraph: 

"To  enable  Congress  to  bribe  the  traitors,  and  buy  up 
the  treason,  the  President  gravely  proposes  an  amendment 
to  the  Constitution  (which  will  require  the  approval  of 
three-fourths  of  the  States)  giving  that  body  the  necessary 
authority,  and  the  rebellion  and  slavery  (the  latter  he 
admitted  to  be  the  sole  cause  of  the  former)  till  the  intro- 
duction of  the  twentieth  century  to  be  metamorphosed  into 
loyalty  and  freedom!  This  is  something  more  deplorable 
than  lack  of  common  sense.  It  closely  borders  on  hopeless 
lunacy.  It  will  assuredly  excite  the  astonishment  of  all 
Europe,  the  derision  of  the  Southern  traitors,  and  the  pity 
of  every  true  friend  of  freedom.  It  would,  in  our  judg- 
ment, warrant  the  impeachment  of  the  President  by  Con- 
gress as  mentally  incapable  of  holding  the  sacred  trusts 
committed  to  his  hands." 8 

That  a  man  as  constitutionally  kind  as  Mr. 
Garrison,  could  in  cold  blood,  or  even  in  passion, 
write  a  statement  like  that  about  Lincoln,  proves 
how  bitterly  disappointing,  not  to  say  discourag- 
ing, conditions  were  in  this  country  during  the 
last  month  of  1862. 

8  The  Liberator,  December  5,  1862,  p.  2,  col.  3. 


THE  FINAL  PROCLAMATION 

As  has  been  shown  there  was  much  concern  as 
to  what  President  Lincoln  would  do  in  applying 
the  Emancipation  Proclamation  as  the  First  of 
January,  1863,  approached.  There  was  no  indica- 
tion on  the  part  of  the  border  slave  states  that 
they  would  accept  compensated  emancipation.  As 
the  Proclamation  did  not  include  these  states  in 
its  provisions,  there  may  have  been  no  reason  why 
they  should,  as  no  direct  hint  was  given  that  it 
was  the  intent  of  the  President  to  disturb  the 
"peculiar  institution"  in  states  not  in  rebellion 
against  the  Government.  The  great  desire  on  the 
part  of  Mr.  Lincoln  that  voluntary  emancipation 
should  be  adopted  by  these  states  seems  to  have 
been  due  to  a  purpose  on  his  part  to  as  rapidly  as 
possible  entirely  remove  slavery  from  the  country. 
It  seems  almost  conclusive  that  after  the  policy  of 
Emancipation  had  been  adopted  by  him,  this 
larger  desire  was  at  the  center  of  his  purpose. 

The  people  did  not  have  long  to  wait  to  find 
out  the  President's  intention.  Promptly  on  the 
First  day  of  January  the  final  Proclamation  ap- 
peared. It  contained  both  clear-cut  and  qualify- 
ing clauses,  and  was  as  follows : 

"Whereas,  on  the  22nd  day  of  September,  in  the  year 
of  our  Lord  1862,  a  proclamation  was  issued  by  the  Presi- 

Page  One  Hundred-nineteen 


Page  One  Hundred-twenty 

dent  of  the  United  States,  containing,  among  other  things, 
the  following,  to  wit: 

"  'That  on  the  1st  day  of  January,  in  the  year 
of  our  Lord  1863,  all  persons  held  as  slaves 
within  any  State  or  designated  part  of  a  State, 
the  people  whereof  shall  then  be  in  rebellion 
against  the  United  States,  shall  be  then,  thence- 
forward, and  forever  free;  and  the  Executive 
Government  of  the  United  States,  including  the 
military  and  naval  authority  thereof,  will  recog- 
nize and  maintain  the  freedom  of  such  persons, 
and  will  do  no  act  or  acts  to  repress  such  per- 
sons, or  any  of  them,  in  any  efforts  they  may 
make  for  their  actual  freedom.' 

"'That  the  Executive  will,  on  the  first  day  of 
January  aforesaid,  by  proclamation,  designate  the 
States  and  parts  of  States,  if  any,  in  which  the 
people  thereof  respectively  shall  then  be  in  re- 
bellion against  the  United  States;  and  the  fact 
that  any  State,  or  the  people  thereof,  shall  on 
that  day  be  in  good  faith  represented  in  the  Con- 
gress of  the  United  States,  by  members  chosen 
thereto  at  elections  wherein  a  majority  of  the 
qualified  voters  of  such  State  shall  have  partici- 
pated, shall,  in  the  absence  of  strong  counter- 
vailing testimony,  be  deemed  conclusive  evidence 
that  such  Sta(te,  and  the  people  thereof,  are  not 
then  in  rebellion  against  t'he  United  States.' 

"Now,  therefore,  I,  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN,  President 
of  the  United  States,  by  virtue  of  the  power  in  me  vested 
as  Commander-in-chief  of  the  Army  and  Navy  of  the 
United  States  in  time  of  actual  armed  rebellion  against 
the  authority  and  Government  of  the  United  States,  and 
as  a  fit  and  necessary  war  measure  for  suppressing  said 
rebellion,  do,  on  this  first  day  of  January,  in  the  year  of 
our  Lord  one  thousand  eight  hundred  and  sixty-three, 
and  in  accordance  with  my  purpose  so  to  do,  publicly  pro- 
claimed for  the  full  period  of  one  hundred  days  from  the 
day  first  above  mentioned,  order  and  designate  as  the  States 
and  parts  of  States  wherein  the  people  thereof  respectively 


Page  One  Hundred-twenty-one 

are  this  day  in  rebellion  against  the  United  States,  the 
following,  to  wit: 

"Arkansas,  Texas,  Louisiana  (except  the  parishes  of 
St.  Bernard,  Plaquemine,  Jefferson,  St.  John,  St.  Charles, 
St.  James,  Ascension,  Assumption,  Terre  Bonne,  La- 
fourche,  St.  Mary,  St.  Martin,  and  Orleans,  including  the 
city  of  New  Orleans),  Mississippi,  Alabama,  Florida, 
Georgia,  South  Carolina,  North  Carolina,  and  Virginia 
(except  the  forty-eight  counties  designated  as  West  Vir- 
ginia, and  also  the  counties  of  Berkeley,  Accomac,  North- 
ampton, Elizabeth  City,  York,  Princess  Anne,  and  Norfolk, 
including  the  cities  of  Norfolk  and  Portsmouth),  and  which 
excepted  parts  are,  for  the  present,  left  precisely  as  if  this 
proclamation  were  not  issued. 

"And,  by  virtue  of  the  power  and  for  the  purpose  afore- 
said, I  do  order  and  declare  that  all  persons  held  as  slaves 
within  said  designated  States  and  parts  of  States  are  and 
henceforward  shall  be  free;  and  that  the  Executive  Gov- 
ernment of  the  United  States,  including  the  military  and 
naval  authorities  thereof,  will  recognize  and  maintain  the 
freedom  of  said  persons. 

"And  I  hereby  enjoin  upon  the  people  so  declared  to 
be  free  to  abstain  from  all  violence,  unless  in  necessary 
self-defense;  and  I  recommend  to  them  that,  in  all  cases 
when  allowed,  they  labor  faithfully  for  reasonable  wages. 

"And  I  further  declare  and  make  known  that  such  per- 
sons, of  suitable  condition,  will  be  received  into  the  armed 
service  of  the  United  States  to  garrison  forts,  positions, 
stations,  and  other  places,  and  to  man  vessels  of  all  sorts 
in  said  service. 

"And  upon  this  act,  sincerely  believed  to  be  an  act  of 
justice,  warranted  by  the  Constitution  upon  military  neces- 
sity, I  invoke  the  considerate  judgment  of  mankind,  and 
the  gracious  favor  of  Almighty  God. 

"In  testimony  whereof,  I  have  hereunto  set  my  name, 
and  caused  the  seal  of  the  United  States  to  be  affixed. 

16 


Page  One  Hundred-twenty-two 

"Done  at  the  city  of  Washington,  this  1st  day  of  Janu- 
ary, in  the  year  of  our   (L.  S.)    Lord  1863,  and  of  the 
independence  of  the  United  States  the  87th. 
"By  the  President:    ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 
"William  H.  Seward,  Secretary  of  State." 

President  Lincoln's  tenacity  of  purpose,  having 
once  put  his  hand  to  the  plow,  seems  never  to  have 
wavered,  notwithstanding  the  fact  that  the  reg- 
istered public  opinion  of  the  North  apparently 
had  not  approved  his  original  act.  It  will  be 
noted  that  of  the  states  in  rebellion,  Tennessee 
was  not  included  in  the  Proclamation.  This  was 
a  concession  made  to  Andrew  Johnson,  then  mili- 
tary governor  of  that  state.  His  feeling  was  that 
such  exception  might  help  in  "unionizing"  that 
commonwealth,  in  which  there  was  a  considerable 
loyal  sentiment.  The  parts  of  states  excepted 
from  the  provisions  of  the  Proclamation  were  be- 
lieved to  be  in  process  of  reconstruction,  and  what 
government  they  really  possessed  was  adminis- 
tered, either  directly  or  indirectly  by  the  military 
power  of  the  United  States.  These  exceptions 
were  entirely  in  harmony  with  Mr.  Lincoln's  pur- 
pose not  to  violently  disturb  slavery  only  in  such 
states,  or  parts  of  states,  as  were  actually  dis- 
puting the  authority  of  the  General  Government. 
As  he  always  believed  that  his  Constitutional  right 
to  deal  with  slavery  was  purely  as  a  necessity  of 
war,  he  was  careful  at  this  time  not  to  move 
against  the  institution  where  slave-holders  were 
not  opposing  the  authority  of  the  United  States. 


Page  One  Hundred-twenty-three 

This  Proclamation  had  a  more  spectacular  re- 
ception than  the  first  draft  issued  in  September. 
In  several  cities  military  salutes  were  fired  in  its 
honor.  Governor  Andrew,  of  Massachusetts, 
issued  a  special  proclamation,  ordering  a  salute 
of  one  hundred  guns,  as  representing  the  recogni- 
tion by  the  commonwealth,  of  this  important  act. 
Meetings  were  held  in  churches  and  halls  all  over 
the  North ;  but  these  demonstrations  by  ho  means 
indicated  a  unanimous  approval  of  the  President's 
action.  It  is  in  fact  hardly  safe  to  assume  that 
a  majority  opinion  was  with  Mr.  Lincoln  in  Janu- 
ary 1863,  any  more  than  it  was  in  the  preceding 
September. 


TWO  KINDS  OF  CKITICS 

While  the  friends  of  Freedom  and  the  Union 
were  rejoicing  over  the  Proclamation,  the  opposi- 
tion when  not  in  sullen  mood  sneered  at  the  action 
of  the  President,  and  heaped  upon  him  personal 
abuse,  as  they  hurled  hatred  at  the  cause  which 
had  won  such  an  epoch-making  document  as  the 
Emancipation  Proclamation. 

There  seems  to  have  been  about  the  same  align- 
ment of  pro-slavery  opinion  in  the  North  as  there 
was  in  September.  Of  course  Confederate  opin- 
ion had,  if  anything,  grown  more  intense.  Jef- 
ferson Davis  sent  a  message  to  the  Confederate 
Congress  dated  January  12,  1863.  It  contained 
this  paragraph,  among  other  statements,  as  to 
how  the  states  in  rebellion  against  the  Govern- 
ment, should  meet  Mr.  Lincoln's  Proclamation : 

"So  far  as  regards  the  action  of  this  government  on 
such  criminals  as  may  attempt  its  execution,  I  confine 
myself  to  informing  you  that  I  shall — unless  in  your  wis- 
dom you  deem  some  other  course  more  expedient — deliver 
to  the  several  State  authorities  all  commissioned  officers 
of  the  United  States  that  may  hereafter  be  captured  by 
our  forces  in  any  of  the  states  embraced  in  the  Proclama- 
tion, that  they  may  be  dealt  with  in  accordance  with  the 

Page  One  Hundred-twenty-four 


Page  One  Hundred-twenty-five 

laws  of  those  states  providing  for  the  punishment  of  crim- 
inals engaged  in  exciting  servile  insurrection."1 

The  upshot  of  the  matter  was  that  officers  in 
the  Union  Army  were  to  be  considered  criminals, 
according  to  the  antiquated  and  almost  barbarous 
codes  of  Dixie.  They  were  to  be  charged  with  in- 
citing slaves  to  insurrection,  and  dealt  with  ac- 
cordingly. That  these  drastic  methods  were  not 
applied  was  due  to  the  certainty  of  prompt  and 
literal  retaliation,  rather  than  to  any  nice  notions 
about  the  amenities  of  so-called  civilized  warfare. 

A  great  variety  of  captious  critical  opinion  was 
uttered  in  the  North.  Probably  Earl  Russell, 
England's  Foreign  Secretary,  expressed  the  views 
of  a  good  many  pro-slavery  men  and  Southern 
sympathizers  in  the  North,  better  and  more  in- 
geniously than  they  could  do  it  themselves.  The 
letter  was  dated  Foreign  Office,  London,  Jan.  17, 
1863,  and  was  addressed  to  Lord  Lyons,  British 
Minister  to  the  United  States.  Referring  to  Mr. 
Lincoln's  Proclamation,  Earl  Russell,  among 
other  things,  said : 

"It  professes  to  emancipate  all  slaves  in  places  where 
the  United  States  authorities  cannot,  exercising  jurisdic- 
tion, now  make  emancipation  a  reality,  but  it  does  not  decree 
emancipation  of  slaves  in  any  States  or  parts  of  States 
occupied  by  Federal  troops  and  subject  to  Federal  juris- 
diction, and  where,  therefore,  emancipation  if  decreed, 

1  American  Annual  Cyclopaedia  of  the  Year  1863,  p.  786. 


Page  One  Hundred-twenty-six 

might  have  been  carried  into  effect. ...  .There  seems  to 
be  no  declaration  of  principle  adverse  to  slavery  in  this 
proclamation.  It  is  a  measure  of  war,  and  a  measure  of 
war  of  a  very  questionable  kind.  As  President  Lincoln 
has  twice  appealed  to  the  judgment  of  mankind  in  his 
proclamation,  I  venture  to  say  that  I  do  not  think  it  can 
or  ought  to  satisfy  the  friends  of  Abolition,  who  look  for 
total  and  impartial  freedom  for  the  slave,  and  not  for 
vengeance  on  the  slave-owner."* 

Earl  Russell,  like  the  pro-slavery  critics  of  Mr. 
Lincoln  at  home,  failed  to  recognize  that  the  pre- 
liminary draft  of  the  Emancipation  Proclamation 
provided  an  easy  way  of  emancipation  with  no 
vengeance  in  it.  While  Earl  Russel  claimed  to 
speak  for  abolitionists,  he  was  quite  willing  to 
join  in  the  hue  and  cry  against  the  one  man  in 
power  who  was  providing  any  sort  of  abolition. 
All  critics  of  Mr.  Lincoln  of  this  class  either  could 
not,  or  did  not  want  to  understand  his  purpose  not 
to  exceed  his  constitutional  prerogatives  in  deal- 
ing with  slavery. 

But  even  Earl  Russell  himself  seems  to  have 
considered  that  English  opinion  in  the  main  was 
more  sympathetic  with  the  cause  of  the  Union, 
than  was  certain  British  official  opinion.  The 
London  Morning  Star  of  Jan.  2,  1863,  made  this 
statement :  "Lord  Russell  expressed  to  Mr.  Adams 
his  belief  that  English  sympathy  as  tested  by 
popular  meetings,  would  still  be  found  to  be  upon 
the  side  of  the  United  States." 

8  The  same,  p.  834. 


Page  One  Hundred-twenty-seven 

The  Star,  however,  thought  the  Foreign  Secre- 
tary did  not  make  his  statement  strong  enough. 
It  declared  that  the  "overwhelming  preponder- 
ance of  sentiment  was  for  the  North." 

The  workingmen  of  England  were  very  posi- 
tive in  placing  their  sympathy  on  the  right  side. 
On  the  evening  of  December  31,  1862,  a  large 
meeting  of  workingmen  was  held  in  London,  at 
which  an  address  to  President  Lincoln  was 
adopted.  The  meeting  was  held  to  signify  sup- 
port of  the  emancipation  policy  of  Mr.  Lincoln. 
In  this  address  we  find  this  statement: 

"We  have  heard  with  indignation  the  slander  that 
ascribes  to  England  sympathy  with  a  rebellion  of  slave 
holders,  and  all  proposals  to  recognize  in  friendship  a 
confederacy  which  boasts  of  slavery  as  its  corner  stone. 
We  have  watched  with  warmest  interest  the  steady  ad- 
vance of  your  policy  along  the  path  of  emancipation; 
and  on  this  eve  of  the  day  on  which  your  proclamation  of 
freedom  takes  effect,  we  pray  God  to  strengthen  your 
heart,  to  confirm  your  noble  purpose,  and  to  hasten  the 
hearts,  to  confirm  your  noble  purpose,  and  to  hasten  the 
restoration  of  that  lawful  authority  which  engages,  in 
peace  or  war,  by  compensation  or  by  force  of  arms,  to 
realize  the  glorious  principle  on  which  your  Constitution 
is  founded — the  brotherhood,  freedom  and  equality  of  all 
men." 

No  stronger  or  more  sympathetic  words  than 
these  came  to  the  sorely  tried  President  during 
the  four  years  of  our  National  conflict.  Similar 
meetings  were  held  in  many  towns  and  cities  in 
England.  On  the  same  evening  as  the  London 


Page  One  Hundred-twenty-eight 

meeting  a  great  gathering  was  held  in  Sheffield, 
at  which  a  series  of  resolutions  was  passed.  We 
quote  the  last  one: 

"That  in  the  opinion  of  this  meeting  it  is  the  duty  of 
England,  as  the  recognized  enemy  of  slavery,  to  give  her 
sympathy  and  support  to  the  Northern  States,  to  disap- 
prove of  the  origin  and  continuance  of  the  slave-owners' 
rebellion,  and  by  all  peaceable  means  to  try  to  cement  a 
closer  and  stronger  union  between  this  country  and  the 
people  and  government  of  America." 

As  time  went  on,  certain  advanced  Abolition- 
ists in  this  country  curbed  the  disposition  to 
acknowledge  any  origial  emancipation  purpose  on 
the  part  of  President  Lincoln.  On  the  last  Sun- 
day evening  of  1862,  Wendell  Phillips  delivered  a 
long  discourse  in  Masonic  Hall,  Boston,  entirely 
made  up  of  criticism  of  the  President's  recom- 
mendation regarding  colonization,  exaggerating 
it  into  a  main  issue  rather  than  an  incident  in  Mr. 
Lincoln's  policy.  On  the  following  Sunday  eve- 
ning, after  the  final  Proclamation,  Mr.  Phillips 
had  that  document  for  his  subject.  He  gave  all 
the  credit  to  the  "people,"  and  declared  that  the 
Proclamation  was  "the  reluctant  gift  of  the 
leaders  to  the  masses."  Even  then  men  of  the 
Phillips  type  had  not  yet  caught  the  Lincoln 
spirit. 

In  closing  this  chapter  it  may  be  a  matter  of 
interest  to  consider  the  full  extent  of  Emancipa- 
tion as  it  was  planned  by  President  Lincoln.  The 


Page  One  Hundred-twenty-nine 

Anti-Slavery  Standard  made  a  calculation  and  a 
compilation  showing  the  number  of  slaves  in- 
cluded under  the  Emancipation  Proclamation.  It 
made  out  a  grand  total  of  3,123,349.  As  the  num- 
ber of  slaves  in  the  United  States  as  reported  by 
the  census  of  1860,  was  3,953,857,3  it  would  seem 
that  the  Proclamation  left  only  830,238  outside  of 
its  provisions. 

8  National  Anti-Slavery  Standard,  Jan.  10,  1863 ;  p.  2,  Vol.  I. 


17 


THE  PRO-SLAVERY  ELEMENT  IN 
EVIDENCE 

In  March  1863  a  law  was  passed  by  Congress 
authorizing  an  enrollment  of  all  men  in  the  states 
subject  to  military  duty.  Three  months  later 
President  Lincoln  in  accordance  with  the  provis- 
ions of  the  statue,  ordered  a  draft  so  apportioned 
as  to  raise  the  300,000  men  for  the  Union  armies. 
This  draft  was  listed  to  begin  in  New  York  City 
on  the  13th  of  July.  Promptly  on  time  the  pro- 
slavery  and  anti-administration  newspapers  of 
the  metropolis  began  to  inflame  the  public  mind, 
and  to  do  so  in  such  a  way  as  to  inspire  resistance 
to  the  law,  the  result  being  the  most  disastrous 
and  diabolical  riot  which  ever  disgraced  an 
American  city. 

While  resistance  to  the  draft  was  pretendedly 
general,  and  based  on  its  claimed  unconstitution- 
ally, it  was  at  heart  traitorous,  and  pro-slavery 
to  the  core.  As  the  riot  progressed  it  vented  its 
fury  largely  on  inoffensive  colored  people,  and 
Burned  or  damaged  the  property  of  prominent 
abolitionists  and  friends  of  the  Union.  It  was 
one  of  the  ugly  reactions  from  the  emancipation 
policy  of  the  President,  showing  plainly  the 
strength  and  character  of  the  opposition  to  the 
administration.  That  opposition  to  the  "abolition 
war"  was  the  real  spirit  behind  this  riot,  is  easy 

Page  One  Hundred-thirty 


Page  One  Hundred-thirty-one 

of  demonstration.  On  the  morning  before  the 
draft  began,  the  New  York  Journal  of  Com- 
merce said:  "Some  men  say,  'Now  that  the  war 
has  commenced  it  must  not  be  stopped  until 
slavery  is  abolished.'  Such  men  are  neither  more 
nor  less  than  murderers." 

Riots  of  far  less  importance  were  simultane- 
ously inaugurated  in  Boston,  Jersey  City,  N.  J., 
Troy,  N.  Y.,  and  other  places.  The  Union  victory 
at  Gettysburg  and  the  fall  of  Vicksburg,  however, 
had  a  discouraging  effect  upon  the  rioters,  and 
the  outbreaks  rapidly  subsided.  That  they  were 
all  demonstrations  in  aid  of  the  Confederacy  was 
pretty  generally  understood  by  Union  men.  If 
any  thing  more  was  needed  in  confirmation  the 
exulting  Confederate  press  voluntarily  furnished 
the  missing  link. 

The  Richmond,  Va.,  Enquirer  of  July  18,  among 
other  things  said: 

"Riot,  murder  and  conflagration  have  begun  in  New 
York.  It  is  a  wonder  that  this  good  work  did  not  com- 
mence long  ago;  and  this  excellent  outbreak  may  be  the 
opening  scene  of  the  inevitable  revolution  which  is  to  tear 
to  pieces  the  most  rotten  Society,  and  leave  the  Northern 
half  of  the  old  American  Union  a  desert  of  blood-soaked 
ashes.  We  bid  it  good  speed." 

The  Richmond  Dispatch  of  the  same  date,  after 
predicting  the  absolute  failure  of  the  draft,  and 
declaring  that  "the  days  as  well  as  the  soldiers  of 
the  Federal  Army  are  numbered,"  thus  gleefully 
encouraged  the  contemplated  Confederate  fire  in 


Page  One  Hundred-thirty-two 

the  rear,  in  the  shape  of  rapine  and  murder  at  the 
hands  of  pro-slavery  mobs  in  the  North: 

"Let  us  have  more  of  these  outpourings — a  few  more 
great  cities  on  the  mourners  bench — some  more  guttings 
and  sackings  of  houses,  and  hanging  and  mutilating  of 
men.  It  saves  the  Confederate  troops  a  deal  of  march- 
ing, and  lops  off  many  a  dreary  month  of  this  war.  The 
sacking  and  burning  has  been  heretofore  at  the  South. 
Our  compliments  to  our  Northern  'brethren,'  and  may  they 
enjoy  their  turn." 

That  the  draft  riots  gave  heart  to  the  Con- 
federacy needed  no  Southern  witnesses  to  prove. 
Every  anti-administration  newspaper  in  the 
North  furnished  ample  evidence  of  that  fact. 
These  papers  practically  exhorted  opposition  to 
the  authority  of  the  government.  Wherever  mobs 
of  this  sort  gathered  and  operated,  they  exhibited 
the  Southern  spirit  as  clearly  as  the  two  Rich- 
mond papers  quoted  above  voiced  it.  At  no  point 
was  this  fact  better  illustrated  than  in  the  venom 
visited  upon  the  colored  people.  The  natural  sup- 
position would  lead  one  to  think  that  even  a  mob 
would  have  no  cause  against  little  children.  But 
the  mob  in  New  York  respected  neither  age  nor 
sex.  The  colored  Orphan  Asylum  was  set  on  fire 
and  destroyed.  The  New  York  Herald  of  July 
16th,  said : 

"The  poor  negroes,  or  what  is  left  of  them,  are  hourly 
leaving  the  city.  They  claim  that  they  are  hardly  allowed 
the  privilege  of  escaping.  Everywhere  throughout  the 


Page  One  Hundred-thirty-three 

city  they  are  driven  about  like  sheep,  and  numbers  are 
killed,  of  whom  no  account  will  ever  be  learned." 

But  it  is  not  necessary  to  elaborate  the  revolting 
details.  Enough  has  been  given  to  illustrate  the 
condition.  The  Evening  Post,  published  in  the 
metropolis,  in  a  headline  aptly  called  the  riot  "the 
New  York  Branch  of  the  Great  Rebellion." 

This  demonstration  of  insane  and  brutal  fury 
in  the  Nation's  chief  city,  helped  to  show  how  mis- 
taken was  that  judgment  which  thought  that 
nothing  was  necessary  but  emancipation  to  unite 
the  North,  and  make  the  armies  of  the  Republic 
continuously  victorious.  The  draft  itself  proved 
that  voluntary  enlistments  had  not  kept  up  the 
demand  for  recruits. 


LINCOLN'S  MAINSTAY  WAS  THE  PEOPLE 

No  more  seemingly  unaccountable  conditions 
have  existed  in  the  political  history  of  the  coun- 
try than  those  which  ushered  in  and  continued 
during  the  Presidential  campaign  of  1864.  The 
Emancipation  Proclamation  had  become  well 
grounded,  and  no  reaction  from  its  provisions  or 
its  results  seemed  likely.  The  state  of  Maryland, 
which  had  rejected  President  Lincoln's  proffer  of 
compensated  emancipation,  had  amended  its  con- 
stitution forever  prohibiting  slavery.  While  the 
war  still  drew  its  weary  length  along,  there  was 
evidence  in  plenty  that  the  Confederacy  was 
weakening,  and  nothing  but  a  reasonably  united 
North  was  necessary  to  crush  the  rebellion. 

Notwithstanding  all  this,  there  was  respectable 
and  influential,  if  not  numerous  opposition  to  the 
renomination  of  Mr.  Lincoln.  Some  who  had  im- 
portuned him  in  season  and  out  of  season  to  issue 
the  Emancipation  Proclamation  were  among  his 
most  noisy  opponents.  With  such  men  as  Salmon 
P.  Chase,  Benjamin  F.  Wade,  Henry  Winter 
Davis,  and  Horace  Greeley,  at  odds  with  the 
President,  and  planning  if  not  plotting  to  prevent 
his  nomination,  there  was  certainly  an  opposition 
which  could  not  be  ignored.  Sumner,  the  com- 
manding Senator  from  Massachusetts,  was  half- 
Page  One  Hundred-thirty-four 


Page  One  Huodred-thirty-five 

hearted,  and  Thaddeus  Stevens,  the  Pennsylvania 
"Commoner,"  was  sulking  in  his  tent.  The  trouble 
with  the  latter  was  that  Mr.  Lincoln  had  not  been 
hard  enough  on  the  rebels,  and  had  not  sufficiently 
punished  the  South,  as  Stevens  thought  he  was  in 
duty  bound  to  do  under  the  circumstances.  But 
whatever  the  old  line  Free  Soil  leaders  thought  or 
did,  the  people  believed  that  the  war  could  end 
victoriously,  and  the  fruits  of  freedom  which  it 
carried  be  better  and  more  surely  secured  under 
Mr.  Lincoln  than  any  one  else. 

There  were  many  men,  who  had  been  influential 
in  the  Republican  party,  who  were  willing  to  pre- 
dict that  Mr.  Lincoln  could  not  be  re-elected. 
Senator  S.  C.  Pomeroy,  of  Kansas,  in  the  winter 
of  1864,  thus  expressed  himself :  "That  even  were 
the  election  of  Mr.  Lincoln  desirable,  it  is  prac- 
tically impossible  against  the  union  of  forces  that 
will  oppose  him." 

Men,  whose  dominant  issue  was  abolition,  were 
also  inclined  to  be  pessimistically  prophetic.  In 
its  issue  of  April  16,  1864,  the  National  Anti- 
Slavery  Standard  said  editorially:  "You  may 
nominate  Mr.  Lincoln,  possibly,  without  satisfy- 
ing the  Radicals ;  but  you  cannot  elect  him." 

It  is  scarcely  necessary  to  go  into  a  detailed  re- 
view of  the  campaign.  The  Democrats  nominated 
General  George  B.  McClellan  for  President  on  a 
platform  that  pronounced  the  war  a  failure,  and 
demanded  a  peace  parley,  and  negotiations  which 


Page  One  Hundred-thirty-six 

should  contemplate  and  secure  peace  on  almost 
any  terms. 

The  radical  Republicans  met  in  mass  conven- 
tion, in  Cleveland,  a  week 1  before  the  Republican 
Convention,  and  nominated  General  John  C.  Fre- 
mont for  President.  One  curious  thing  about  this 
Convention  was  that  its  platform  was  tame  and 
halting  compared  with  the  Republican  deliver- 
ance, and  much  less  radical  and  insistent  regard- 
ing slavery.  The  candidates  nominated  at  Cleve- 
land withdrew  in  September,  and  probably  would 
have  been  literally  laughed  out  of  court  had  they 
not  done  so. 

The  conglomerate  character  of  the  Cleveland 
platform,  led  to  the  charge,  if  not  the  conclu- 
sion, that  it  was  partly  made  for  consumption  by 
the  Democrats  when  they  should  meet  in  Chicago. 
Senator  Pomeroy's  statement  about  the  "Union  of 
forces  that  would  oppose"  Mr.  Lincoln,  was 
thought  to  be  based  on  the  expectation  that  in 
some  unforeseen  way  the  Radical  ox  and  the 
Democratic  donkey  would  be  yoked  together,  and 
the  defeat  of  Lincoln  assured.  But  the  people 
discounted  all  of  the  prophets  when  it  came  their 
turn  to  act. 

The  Republican  Union  Convention,  as  it  was 
called,  met  in  Baltimore,  June  7,  1864,  and  unani- 
mously nominated  Abraham  Lincoln  for  Presi- 
dent. The  fortunes  of  war,  such  as  Sherman's 

1  May  31,  1864. 


Page  One  Hundred-thirty-eeven 

march  to  the  sea,  and  Sheridan  running  Hood  out 
of  the  Shenandoah  Valley,  fired  the  popular  imag- 
ination, and  forestalled  Mr.  Lincoln's  election. 
Yet  it  must  be  admitted  that  there  were  grave 
apprehensions,  not  so  much  for  his  defeat,  'as  that 
the  margin  of  success  might  be  so  narrow  and 
dubious,  as  to  greatly  temper  the  victory. 

There  was  a  rapid  readjustment  and  realign- 
ment of  public  opinion  after  the  Baltimore  Con- 
vention adjourned.  The  Anti-Slavery  Standard 
considered  the  Union  Republican  platform  much 
more  satisfactory  than  the  supposed  radical  ut- 
terance at  Cleveland.  Mr.  Garrison  was  almost 
enthusiastic.  Speaking  of  the  Republican  plat- 
form, the  Liberator  said : 

"This  third  series  of  resolutions,  though  longer  than 
either  of  the  others,  is  written  with  much  spirit  and  vigor, 
and  really  contains  more  expression  and  suggestion  of  re- 
formatory measures  than  an  abolitionist  would  expect  to 
proceed  from  so  large  a  body  of  men,  assembled  to  promote 
the  nomination  and  election  of  Abraham  Lincoln."2 

In  a  speech  delivered  in  New  York  a  month  be- 
fore the  Baltimore  Convention,  Mr.  Garrison 
said: 

"No  man  is  now  so  detested  by  the  rebels  as  Abraham 
Lincoln,  and  hence  he  thought  the  people  would  let  him 
'run  the  machine  four  years  longer.'  Granting  that  justice 
had  not  been  done  to  the  negro,  were  the  people  a  hair's 

-  The  Liberator,  June  17,  18G4,  p.  2.  18 


Page  One  Hundred-thirty-eight 

breadth  in  advance  of  the  President?     Was  not  the  Presi- 
dent, after  all,  a  little  in  advance  of  them?"* 

Mr.  Lincoln  carried  all  of  the  loyal  states,  ex- 
cept New  Jersey,  Delaware  and  Kentucky,  but 
his  popular  majority  over  McClellan  was  only 
411,428.  His  majority  in  New  York,  where  Tam- 
many ruled,  was  a  little  over  seven  thousand, 
while  Pennsylvania  would  have  been  lost  but  for 
her  soldier  vote.  It  will  thus  be  seen  that  there 
was  an  immense  public  sentiment  against  the 
election  of  Lincoln,  which  sentiment  was  hostile 
to  the  policy  of  the  administration  regarding 
slavery,  and  the  vigorous  prosecution  of  the  war. 
This  clearly  shows  how  well  Mr.  Lincoln  read  the 
public  mind,  and  how  he  wisely  refrained  from 
proclaiming  emancipation  before  its  time.  But 
figures  speak  louder  than  words.  Lincoln's  vote 
was  2,213,665;  McClellan's  1,802,237.  Consider- 
ing the  great  humane  and  National  interests  for 
which  Lincoln  stood,  from  our  present-day  stand- 
point it  seems  strange  that  the  opposition  to  him 
was  so  large. 

It  is  small  wonder  that  under  the  circumstances 
Mr.  Lincoln  was  an  apprehensive  candidate.  The 
late  Alexander  K.  McClure  was  Lincoln's  assistant 
campaign  manager  in  Pennsylvania.  McClure 
says  that  after  the  October  elections  Lincoln  was 


'Quoted  from  Centralia,  Ohio,  Sentinel  in  Liberator  of  June 
17,  1864,  p.  2. 


Page  One  Hundred-thirty-nine 

fearful  about  New  York  and  Pennsylvania.  * 
While  he  could  be  elected  without  these  states, 
the  moral  effect  of  their  loss  would  have  been  dis- 
appointing if  not  disastrous. 

McClure  tells  us  that  on  the  23d  of  August, 
1864,  Lincoln  wrote  the  following  statement, 
which  he  signed : 

"This  morning,  as  for  some  days  past,  it  seems  exceed- 
ingly probable  that  this  administration  will  not  be  re- 
elected.  Then  it  will  be  my  duty  to  co-operate  with  the 
President-elect  so  as  to  save  the  Union  between  the  elec- 
tion and  the  inauguration,  as  he  will  have  secured  it  on 
such  grounds  that  he  cannot  possibly  save  it  afterwards."  5 

This  depressing  statement  would  seem  to  show 
that  Mr.  Lincoln,  with  his  accustomed  modesty, 
had  not  fully  measured  the  hold  he  was  getting 
on  the  plain  people,  of  whom  he  was  one,  and  in 
whom  he  had  great  confidence. 

*  Our  Presidents  and  How  We  Make  Them.     By  A.  K.  Mc- 
Clure, LL.D.,  p.  195. 

5  The  same,  p.  183. 


LINCOLN  AND  RECONSTRUCTION 

Those  who  like  to  conjure  over  what  might  have 
been,  have  indulged  in  not  a  little  speculating  as 
to  what  would  have  happened  had  Mr.  Lincoln 
lived  to  direct  the  Government's  reconstruction 
policy.  In  the  main,  conjectures  of  this  sort  are 
profitless,  for  there  is  hardly  material  enough 
upon  which  to  base  a  safe  guess.  So  far  as  he 
did  show  his  hand  in  this  particular  it  was  to 
antagonize  Congress,  and  had  his  purpose  been 
revealed  a  year  earlier  it  might  have  imperiled 
his  re-election. 

We  know  that  Mr.  Lincoln  greatly  desired  the 
speedy  rehabilitation  of  the  states  in  rebellion, 
but  he  was  determined  that  nothing  should  be 
permitted  which  would  destroy  the  results  of  the 
war,  as  it  was  borne  in  upon  him  they  should  be. 
He  was  equally  desirous  that  there  should  be  as 
little  resort  to  military  government  in  these  states 
as  possible. 

In  December,  1862,  an  election  was  held  in  two 
Congressional  Districts  in  the  State  of  Louisiana, 
and  Benjamin  F.  Flanders  and  Michael  Hahn 
were  elected  Representatives  in  Congress.  These 
men  had  been  elected  under  an  order  of  General 
Shipley,  the  Military  Governor  of  the  State. 

This  election  undoubtedly  received  the  endorse- 
ment if  it  was  not  devised  by  the  President. 
Early  in  February,  1863,  the  two  Louisiana  Rep- 
Page  One  Hundred-forty 


resentatives  were  admitted  to  their  seats.  This 
result  was  not  accomplished,  however,  without 
much  opposition.  It  is  comment  enough  on  the 
unsatisfactory  character  of  this  experiment  to 
say  that  it  was  never  repeated. 

When  the  Thirty-eighth  Congress  met  Decem- 
ber 3,  1863,  and  President  Lincoln  presented  his 
annual  message,  it  was  found  to  carry  what  be- 
came known  as  a  Proclamation  of  Amnesty.  In 
this  Proclamation  the  President  announced  that 
"to  all  persons  who  have  directly  or  by  implica- 
tion participated  in  the  existing  rebellion  except 
as  herein  excepted,  a  full  pardon  is  hereby 
granted  with  restoration  of  all  rights  of  property 
except  as  to  slaves,  upon  condition  that  every 
such  person  shall  take  and  subscribe  an  oath,  and 
thenceforward  maintain  said  oath  inviolate." 
The  substance  of  this  oath  was  as  follows: 
"Henceforth  to  faithfully  support  and  defend  the 
Constitution  and  the  Union  of  the  States  there- 
under," to  abide  by  all  laws  and  proclamations, 
"made  during  the  existing  rebellion,  having 
reference  to  slaves,  so  long  and  so  far  as  not  mod- 
ified or  declared  void  by  decision  of  the  Supreme 
Court."  The  following  persons  were  exempt 
from  the  benefits  of  this  pardon :  "Civil  and  diplo- 
-  matic  officers  in  the  Confederate  Government ; 
those  who  left  judicial  stations  in  the  United 
States  Government  to  aid  the  rebellion;  military 
officers  of  the  Confederacy  above  the  rank  of 
Colonel,  and  naval  officers  beyond  the  rank  of 


Page  One  Hundred-forty-two 

Lieutenant;  all  who  left  seats  in  the  Congress 
of  the  United  States  to  aid  the  rebellion;  all  who 
left  the  National  Army  or  Navy  to  aid  the  rebel- 
lion; all  who  had  treated  colored  persons  found 
in  the  military  or  naval  service  of  the  United 
States  otherwise  than  as  prisoners  of  war." 

Mr.  Lincoln  proposed  to  establish  a  State  gov- 
ernment wherever  there  should  be  found  a  popu- 
lation loyal  to  the  Union,  sufficient  to  cast  a  vote 
equal  to  one-tenth  of  that  cast  at  the  Presidential 
election  in  1860.  As  a  partial  result  of  this  plan, 
what  was  called  a  Free  State  Convention  met  in 
New  Orleans,  January  8,  1864.  General  Banks, 
in  command  of  the  military  district,  on  the  re- 
quest of  this  convention,  asked  an  election  for 
state  officers,  to  be  held  on  Washington's  birthday. 
Michael  Hahn,  one  of  the  two  Congressmen  be- 
fore mentioned,  was  elected  Governor.  Mr. 
Hahn  was  installed  on  the  4th  of  March,  and  on 
the  15th  Mr.  Lincoln  issued  a  Presidential  order, 
in  which  he  said  that  Mr.  Hahn  would  be  "in- 
vested until  further  orders  with  the  power  exer- 
cised hitherto  by  the  military  governor  of 
Louisiana." 

The  President  accompanied  his  order  with  a 
personal  note,  one  of  the  most  felicitous  pieces 
of  writing  in  the  whole  Lincoln  collection,  in 
which  he  said: 

"I  congratulate  you  on  having  fixed  your  name  in  history 
as  the  first  free-state  Governor  of  Louisiana.  Now  you 
are  about  to  have  a  convention  which  among  other  things 


Page  One  Hundred-forty-three 

will  probably  define  the  elective  franchise.  I  barely  sug- 
gest for  your  private  consideration  whether  some  of  the 
colored  people  may  not  be  let  in,  as  for  instance  the  very 
intelligent  and  especially  those  who  may  have  fought  gal- 
lantly in  our  ranks.  They  would  probably  help  in  some 
trying  time  in  the  future  to  keep  the  jewel  of  Liberty  in 
the  family  of  Freedom." 

In  speaking  of  this  letter,  James  G.  Elaine  said : 
"It  was  perhaps  the  earliest  proposition  from  any 
authentic  source  to  endow  the  negro  with  the 
right  of  suffrage,  and  was  an  indirect  but  most 
effective  answer  to  those  who  subsequently  at- 
tempted to  use  Mr.  Lincoln's  name  in  support  of 
policies  which  his  intimate  friends  instinctively 
knew  would  be  abhorent  to  his  unerring  sense  of 
justice."  x 

Louisiana's  reconstruction  was  continued  by 
the  adoption  of  a  new  constitution  which  forever 
prohibited  slavery.  The  vote  on  this  document 
though  small,  met  the  President's  requirement  of 
ten  per  cent,  of  the  last  Presidential  vote.  Fol- 
lowing the  example  of  Louisiana,  an  effort  was 
made  to  reconstruct  Arkansas.  A  loyal  governor 
was  chosen,  an  anti-slavery  constitution  was 
adopted,  and  two  United  States  Senators  selected. 
These  men  were  refused  their  seats  by  the  Senate, 
and  Congress  took  a  hand  at  reconstruction  by 
passing  a  bill  having  that  purpose.  The  upshot 
of  this  plan  was  that  no  state  that  had  been  in 


1  Twenty  Years  of  Congress.     By  James  G.  Blaiae.     Vol.  II, 
p.  39. 


Page  One  Hundsed-forty-four 

rebellion  could  secure  representation  in  Congress, 
or  recognition  as  an  active  and  integral  part  of 
the  Union,  until  a  majority  of  the  white  male 
citizens  had  taken  the  prescribed  oath  of  alle- 
giance, and  then  only  in  case  military  resistance 
to  the  United  States  had  ceased  in  such  state.  In 
addition  collateral  provisions  of  various  kinds 
were  to  be  observed.  The  bill  passed  in  the  clos- 
ing days  of  Congress.  It  was  considered  a  re- 
buke to  President  Lincoln,  and  a  condemnation 
of  his  reconstruction  efforts.  Mr.  Lincoln  neither 
signed  nor  vetoed  the  bill,  and  it  therefore  fell 
back  dead. 

The  country  was  on  the  verge  of  the  Presiden- 
tial election  of  1864.  Congress  not  being  in  ses- 
sion, what  might  have  been  a  conflict  between  the 
Executive  and  Legislative  branches  of  the  Gov- 
ernment was  thus  avoided.  Two  men,  however, 
Henry  Winter  Davis,  of  Maryland,  and  Benjamin 
F.  Wade,  of  Ohio,  one  a  Representative,  and  the 
other  a  Senator,  issued  a  rather  fierce  protest 
against  the  President's  plan,  but  it  had  no  per- 
ceptible -effect  on  the  election.  By  this  time  the 
people  were  beginning  to  have  more  faith  in  Mr. 
Lincoln  than  they  had  in  the  politicians  or  the  ex- 
tremists in  Congress. 

When  Congress  met  in  December,  1864,  Mr. 
Lincoln  ignored  the  controversy  in  his  message. 
Congress,  however,  was  not  so  willing  to  forgive 
and  forget,  and  proceeded  to  pass  a  joint  resolu- 


Page  One  Hundred-forty-five 

tion  declaring  that  certain  States  "were  not  en- 
titled to  representation  in  the  electoral  college." 
That  the  resolution  was  aimed  at  Mr.  Lincoln's 
reconstructed  states,  was  universally  admitted. 
On  February  8,  1865,  the  President  sent  a  short 
special  message  to  Congress,  one  of  the  most 
pointed  and  at  the  same  time  most  tactful  public 
documents  ever  issued  by  him.  He  signed  the 
joint  resolution,  and  thereby  refused  to  be  drawn 
into  any  controversy  with  the  law-making  branch 
of  the  Government.  If  the  intent  was  to  rebuke 
him,  he  robbed  the  resolution  of  whatever  sting 
it  had,  and  then  assumed  the  even  tenor  of  his 
way. 

While  his  opponents  in  Congress  referred  to 
Louisiana  and  Arkansas  as  Mr.  Lincoln's  "ten 
per  cent,  states,"  he  insisted  that  his  plan  had 
merit,  and  defended  it  to  the  end.  Within  four 
days  of  his  assassination,  in  the  last  speech  he 
ever  made,  he  said  regarding  the  twelve  thousand 
men  who  had  set  up  the  new  government  in 
Louisiana : 

"If  we  now  reject  and  spurn  them  we  do  our  best  to 
disorganize  and  disperse  them.  We  say  to  the  white  man 
you  are  worth  less  or  more.  We  will  neither  help  you,  nor 
be  helped  by  you.  To  the  black  man  we  say,  this  cup  of 
liberty,  which  these,  your  old  masters,  hold  to  your  lips 
we  will  dash  from  you,  and  leave  you  to  the  chances  of  gath- 
ering the  spilled  and  scattered  contents  in  some  vague  and 
undefined  way  where  and  when  and  how.  If  this  course, 

19 


Page  One  Hundred-forty-six 

discouraging  and  paralyzing  to  both  white  and  black,  has 
any  tendency  to  bring  Louisiana  into  proper  practical  rela- 
tions with  the  Union,  I  have  so  far  been  unable  to  perceive 
it.  If,  on  the  contrary,  they  recognize  and  sustain  the  new 
government  of  Louisiana,  the  converse  of  all  this  is  made 
true.  We  encourage  the  hearts  and  nerve  the  arms  of 
twelve  thousand  men  to  adhere  to  their  work  and  argue 
for  it,  and  proselyte  for  it,  and  grow  it,  and  ripen  it  to  a 
complete  success.  The  colored  man,  too,  in  seeing  all 
united  for  him,  is  inspired  with  vigilance  and  with  energy 
and  daring  to  the  same  end.  Grant  that  he  desires  the 
elective  franchise.  He  will  yet  attain  it  sooner  by  saving 
the  already  advanced  steps  towards  it  than  by  running 
back  over  them.  Concede  that  the  new  government  of 
Louisiana  is  only  to  what  it  should  be  as  the  egg  is  to  the 
fowl,  we  shall  sooner  have  the  fowl  by  hatching  the  egg 
than  by  smashing  it." 

The  points  of  difference  between  Mr.  Lin- 
coln's plan  of  Reconstruction  and  that  suggested 
by  Congress  were  altogether  matters  of  method, 
the  vital  principles  involved  being  alike  in  both 
cases.  Mr.  Lincoln  proposed  to  reconstruct  the 
states  in  rebellion  on  the  basis  of  a  fit  nucleus  of 
loyal  citizens,  less  than  a  majority  of  the  entire 
white  male  electorate.  Congress  desired  the 
larger  basis.  The  President  believed  that  the 
majority  could  be  educated  back  to  loyalty  by  the 
example  of  the  experimental  government,  fully  in 
line  with  the  Union.  He  wanted  a  reconstructed 
state  sooner  than  was  possible  under  the  Con- 
gressional plan.  It  was  said  in  criticism  of  the 
President's  plan  that  his  "ten  per  cent."  states 
could  not  exist  without  the  support  of  the  mili- 


Page  One  Hundred-forty-seven 

tary.  But  that  would  probably  have  been  true 
of  any  Reconstruction  plan  that  could  have  been 
applied. 

The  last  speech  of  Lincoln,  quoted  above,  is  par- 
ticularly suggestive  because  of  its  reference  to  the 
colored  people,  and  his  solicitude  in  their  behalf. 
That  he  had  their  best  interests  at  heart  to  the 
end,  even  their  reasonable  and  regulated  enjoy- 
ment of  the  franchise,  admits  of  no  doubt. 


SECESSION  AND  RECONSTRUCTION 

After  four  years  of  war,  the  most  costly  in 
blood  and  treasure  in  the  history  of  the  world, 
the  Nation  faced  problems  of  peace  not  less  per- 
plexing than  those  which  characterized  the  con- 
flict. The  power  of  the  Confederacy  was  crushed 
with  the  conquering  of  its  armies.  It  was  gener- 
ally admitted  that  African  slavery  as  it  had  been 
known  in  this  country  for  nearly  two  hundred  and 
fifty  years  was  gone.  But  that  did  not  mean  that 
those  who  had  been  its  beneficiaries,  and  who  had 
inaugurated  and  carried  on  the  war  to  maintain 
the  institution  were  convinced  that  either  the 
holding  of  slaves,  or  the  attempted  secession  in 
order  to  set  up  a  new  government  with  slavery 
as  its  social  and  industrial  cornerstone  was 
wrong.  The  South  could  not  maintain  its  cause 
by  force,  and  whatever  yielding  there  was  came 
as  the  result  of  necessity,  and  not  from  convic- 
tion. 

Manifestly  the  war  had  made  a  readjustment 
of  relationships  necessary.  Whatever  the  legal 
nature  of  secession  or  the  continuous  character  of 
a  state,  under  the  constitutional  provisons  upon 
which  the  Union  of  States  rested,  there  had  been 

Page  One  Hundred-forty-eight 


Page  One  Hundred-forty-nine 

a  break  in  the  National  family.  What  the  coun- 
try proposed  to  do  about  it  constituted  the  prob- 
lem of  Reconstruction.  The  problem  also  in- 
cluded the  status  of  nearly  four  million  black 
folks  whom  the  fortunes  of  war  had  transformed 
from  a  condition  of  servitude  to  one  of  freedom, 
carrying  with  it  responsibilities  regarding  which 
the  emancipated  race  knew  nothing. 

Plans  of  Reconstruction  were  colored  and  prac- 
tically conditioned  by  theories  of  secession,  and 
ideas  as  to  what  a  state  could  do  to  take  itself 
out  of  the  Union.  There  were  different  finely- 
spun  theories  relating  to  this  subject.  Had  it 
been  possible  to  consider  facts  and  acts,  and  their 
results,  without  much  regard  for  the  dogmas 
which  had  inspired  the  acts,  the  solution  of  the 
problem  might  have  been  different. 

The  people  of  the  South,  and  their  northern 
sympathizers,  considered  secession  the  right  and 
privilege  of  a  state,  hence  the  whole  affair  from 
the  firing  on  Sumter,  through  the  four  years' 
carnival  of  blood,  was  something  to  be  forgotten 
in  a  day  and  forgiven  on  sight  Academic  seces- 
sion still  has  its  defenders  in  the  North,  and  the 
South  has  never  ceased  to  believe  in  the  right  of 
actual  secession,  -as  part  of  the  Southern  idea. 
Leading  secessionists  are  cannonized  by  Southern 
men,  and  the  soldiers  of  secession  have  been  im- 
mortalized by  Southern  women  in  inscriptions 


Page  One  Hundred-fifty 

like  the  following  oil  many  monuments  throughout 
the  South: 

"THEY  GAVE  THEIR  ALL  IN  DEFENSE  OF  HOME, 
HONOR,  LIBERTY,  AND  THE  INDEPENDENCE  OF  THEIR 
NATIVE  LAND.  THEY  FOUGHT  THE  PATRIOTS'  FIGHT. 
THEY  KEPT  THE  FAITH  OF  THEIR  FATHERS,  FOREVER 
HONORED  AND  FOREVER  MOURNED."  * 

Historians  and  publicists  long  since  the  Rebel- 
lion have  lent  dignity  to  the  secession  theory, 
amounting  to  apologies  for  the  act  of  secession  in 
1861.  In  witness  of  this  statement  we  produce 
the  following,  written  in  commenting  on  the  con- 
duct of  the  men  who  set  up  the  Southern  Con- 
federacy : 

"The  legal  theory  upon  which  this  startling  and  extraor- 
dinary series  of  steps  was  taken  was  on'e  which  would 
hardly  have  been  questioned  in  the  early  years  of  the 
government,  whatever  resistance  might  then  have  been 
offered  to  its  practical  execution.  It  was  for  long  found 
difficult  to  deny  that  a  State  could  withdraw  from  the 
federal  arrangement,  as  she  might  have  declined  to 
enter  it."  * 

Another  theory  came  on  the  heels  of  the  war. 
It  was  held  by  President  Andrew  Johnson,  al- 
though the  claim  is  made  that  it  was  hatched  by 
William  H.  Seward.  Mr.  Johnson  exploited  this 
theory  in  his  first  message  to  Congress  in  Decem- 
ber, 1865.  He  assumed  that  any  plan  for  dealing 

1  Inscription  on  Confederate  Monument  at  Aiken.  S.  C. 
Erected  by  the  Ladies'  Monument  Association,  July  23.  1901. 


2  Epochs  of  American   History.     Vol.   Ill,   p.   2: 
and  Reunion.     By  Woodrow  Wilson,  Ph.D.,  L.L.D. 


211.     Division 


Page  One  Hundred-fifty-one 

with  the  states  lately  in  rebellion,  short  of  receiv- 
ing them  as  full  partners  in  the  Government, 
would  amount  to  the  military  control  of  such 
states.  He  then  asked  the  question : 

"Would  not  the  policy  of  military  rule  imply  that  the 
states  whose  inhabitants  may  have  taken  part  in  the  Rebel- 
lion, have  by  the  act  of  those  inhabitants  ceased  to  exist? 
when  the  true  theory  is,  that  all  pretended  acts  of  seces- 
sion were  from  the  beginning  null  and  void." 

Practical  men  insisted  that  whatever  may  have 
been  the  status  of  states  as  geographical  and 
political  subdivisions  of  the  United  States,  and 
however  constitutionally  null  and  void  acts  of  se- 
cession may  have  been,  the  conduct  of  the  men 
who  exploited  secession,  and  which  gave  the  coun- 
try the  Civil  War  with  all  of  its  horrors,  was  a 
sad  reality  in  spite  of  anybody's  theories. 

Samuel  Shellabarger,  member  of  the  House  of 
Representatives  from  Ohio,  in  a  speech  delivered 
before  that  body  in  the  winter  of  1866,  put  in 
plain  language  the  position  of  moderate  men  re- 
garding this  matter.  After  declining  to  discuss 
such  hair-splitting  questions  as  to  whether  any 
state  in  rebellion  "lost  its  territorial  character  or 
its  defined  boundaries  or  subdivisions,  for  I  know 
of  no  one  who  would  obliterate  these  geographical 
qualities  of  the  states,"  Mr.  Shellabarger  said: 

"What  is  before  Congress?  I  at  once  define  and  affirm 
it  in  a  single  sentence.  It  is,  under  our  Constitution, 
possible  to,  and  the  late  Rebellion  did  in  fact,  so  overthrow 


Page  One  Hundred-fifty-two 

and  usurp  in  the  insurrectionary  States,  the  loyal  State 
Governments,  as  that  during  such  usurpation  such  States 
and  their  people  ceased  to  have  any  of  the  rights  or  powers 
of  Government  was  such  that  the  United  States  may,  and 
ought  to,  assume,  local  powers  of  the  lost  State  Govern- 
ments, and  may  control  the  re-admission  of  such  States  to 
their  powers  of  Government  in  this  Union,  subject  to,  and 
in  accordance  with,  the  obligation  to  guarantee  to  each 
State  a  republican  form  of  Government." 

Between  the  theory  of  President  Johnson  to 
the  effect  that  the  theory  of  secession  could  not 
be  resolved  into  an.  act  of  secession,  and  the 
theory  of  Mr.  Shellabarger,  based  on  his  state- 
ment of  fact  as  to  what  really  happened,  there 
was  an  irreconcilable  conflict.  Around  these  two 
theories  the  battle  of  Reconstruction  raged. 

Every  plan  of  Reconstruction  vitally  depended 
upon  the  theory  of  secession,  and  the  action  ad- 
vocated for  dealing  with  those  who  revolted 
against  the  Government.  If  a  state  could  as 
rightfully  withdraw  from  the  Union  as  it  could 
have  withheld  from  entering  it,  and  that  without 
regard  to  the  other  contracting  parties,  no 
offense  could  really  be  committed.  In  that  case, 
those  who  fought  for  secession  and  a  separate 
government  were  in  the  right,  and  those  who  tried 
to  make  them  obey  the  compact  they  entered  into 
when  they  entered  the  Union  were  wrong.  The 
Government  simply  enforced  by  might  what  it 
had  no  right  to  demand.  In  that  view  of  the 
case,  the  men  who  led  the  armies  of  the  Confed- 


Page  One  Hundred-fifiy-three 

eracy,  and  sat  in  the  seats  of  its  Congress,  should 
have  been  invited  back  to  the  family  table,  after 
their  play-spell  with  secession,  with  apologies 
from  the  loyal  North  printed  on  the  bill-of-fare. 

If,  on  the  other  hand,  it  is  the  business  of  every 
government  to  maintain  its  own  integrity,  and 
perpetuate  its  own  life,  a  different  policy  would 
be  demanded.  Mr.  Lincoln,  in  his  first  inaugural, 
said: 

"I  hold  that,  in  the  contemplation  of  universal  law  and 
of  the  Constitution,  the  Union  of  these  States  is  perpetual. 
Perpetuity  is  implied  if  not  expressed  in  the  fundamental 
law  of  all  national  governments.  It  is  safe  to  assert  that 
no  government  proper  ever  had  a  provision  in  its  organic 
law  for  its  own  termination." 

In  that  view  of  the  case,  the  Government  v/as 
under  obligations  to  do  whatever  ripest  judgment 
indicated  might  be  necessary  to  prevent  another 
rebellion.  It  would  thus  seem  that  a  Nation  has 
the  same  right  to  deal  with  its  civic  offenders,  the 
enemies  of  its  life,  that  the  community  has  to  pro- 
tect itself  from  its  criminals,  and  those  who  per- 
sist in  disturbing  its  peace  and  order.  The  thief 
and  the  embezzler  may  not  cease  to  be  citizens, 
even  when  in  jail.  Society  and  the  state,  how- 
ever, quite  properly  deprives  these  people  of  in- 
fluence or  control  in  its  affairs,  according  to  their 
own  pleasure.  Even  though  it  is  assumed  that 
the  inhabitants  of  the  states  in  Rebellion  were 

20 


Page  One  Hundred-fifty-four 

still  part  of  the  Union  and  citizens  of  the  United 
States,  it  by  no  means  follows  that  there  were 
commanding  obligations  requiring  that  they  be 
asked  to  mount  the  seat  of  authority  and  drive  the 
Government  wagon. 

All  who  held  the  Lincoln  view  of  the  Union 
favored  quite  a  different  scheme  of  Reconstruc- 
tion from  those  who  clung  to  the  Johnson  idea. 
The  methods  they  employed  may  have  been  ill- 
advised  in  part,  and  their  defense  has  little  place 
in  this  rehearsal  of  events.  We  simply  deal  with 
the  matter  in  order  to  make  subsequent  events 
more  plain. 


BEFORE  THE  "CARPET-BAGGERS" 

It  is  the  common  practice  in  discussing  the 
work  of  Reconstruction  which  followed  the  Civil 
War,  to  deal  principally  with  the  claimed  wrongs 
of  the  "Carpet-bag  Governments"  which  were  set 
up  in  the  rebellious  states  by  act  of  Congress,  and 
to  the  confessed  outrages  of  the  Klu-Klux  Klan. 
Without  going  into  the  details  of  these  unfor- 
tunate twin  experiences,  it  is  quite  desirable  to 
understand  what  happened  immediately  after  the 
death  of  President  Lincoln.  In  this  conduct  is  to 
be  found  the  course  and  secret  of  much  that  came 
later. 

When  Andrew  Johnson  succeeded  to  the  Presi- 
dency, he  did  a  good  deal  of  vehement  talking 
about  "making  treason  odious  and  punishing 
traitors."  Many  friends  of  the  Union  feared 
and  others  fancied  that  the  aftermath  of  the  Civil 
War  was  to  be  a  round  of  "bloody  reprisals"  for 
the  guilty  promoters  of  secession  and  rebellion, 
with  the  slaughter  of  the  gallows  supplementing 
the  carnage  of  the  battle  field.  But  quite  suddenly 
Mr.  Johnson  toned  down  his  utterances,  and  was 
soon  found  exploiting  a  plan  of  Reconstruction, 
the  upshot  of  which  was  to  make  the  leaders  and 
actors  in  the  Rebellion  the  beneficiaries  of  the 
Presidential  favor. 

The  pretense  if  not  the  purpose  of  the  Johnson 

Page  One  Hundred-fifiy-five 


Page  One  Hundred-fifty-six 

plan  was  both  plausible  and  laudable  on  the  sur- 
face. His  announced  desire  was  the  speedy  re- 
habilitation of  the  states  lately  in  rebellion,  and 
their  restoration  to  their  normal  status  in  the 
Union. 

Mr.  Johnson  acted  on  the  supposition  that  the 
work  of  Reconstruction  was  a  task  entirely  be- 
longing to  the  Executive,  and  to  be  worked  out  by 
him  with  no  interference  on  the  part  of  the  legis- 
lative branch  of  the  Government.  As  will  be  seen 
later,  Congress  thought  quite  differently.  What 
happened  during  the  conflict  inaugurated  between 
the  President  and  the  law-making  body,  contained 
the  sign  if  not  the  seed  of  what  was  later  accom- 
plished in  the  South  under  the  forms  of  law, 
which  practically  resulted  in  the  nullification  of 
the  dominant  purpose  of  the  Reconstruction  pro- 
gram enacted  by  Congress. 

The  first  step  in  the  Johnson  plan  was  the  issu- 
ing of  a  "Proclamation  of  Amnesty  and  Pardon." 
It  was  not  so  much  different  in  scope  from  that 
outlined  in  Mr.  Lincoln's  message  to  Congress  in 
December,  1863.  An  oath  of  allegiance  was  pro- 
vided, but  fourteen  types  of  persons  were  speci- 
fied, for  whom  the  machinery  of  this  proclamation 
was  not  supposed  to  operate.  Literally  applied, 
it  would  have  left  a  long  line  of  the  Rebellion's 
backers  out  in  the  cold,  not  to  be  covered  by  the 
Reconstruction  blanket. 

On  the  same  day  the  Johnson  proclamation  was 
issued,  May  29,  1865,  a  provisional  governor  was 


Page  One  Hundred-fifty-seven 

appointed  by  the  President  for  the  state  of  North 
Carolina.  This  step  having  been  taken,  the  ma- 
chinery for  creating  a  complete  State  Government 
was  set  in  motion.  A  State  convention  was  con- 
vened by  the  governor,  with  assigned  power  to 
amend  the  constitution  of  the  commonwealth,  and 
.do  whatever  might  be  necessary  "to  restore  the 
states'  constitutional  relations  to  the  Federal 
Government."  Following  this  convention  the 
various  departments  at  Washington  were  in- 
structed to  re-establish  all  of  the  General  Govern- 
ment offices  and  agencies  in  North  Carolina.  In 
a  few  days  the  same  "hurry-up"  policy  was  ap- 
plied to  the  states  of  Mississippi,  Georgia,  Texas, 
South  Carolina  and  Florida.  So  swiftly  and  ap- 
parently smoothly  did  the  plan  work  that  by  the 
middle  of  July  all  of  the  Confederate  States  had 
taken  their  immunity  bath,  and  so  far  as  the  will 
of  the  President  could  make  it  so,  came  out  of  the 
solution  really  Reconstructed. 

The  so-called  Reconstruction  Conventions  in  the 
Southern  States,  called  together  by  Presidential 
fiat,  assumed  legislative  powers,  and  proceeded  to 
provide  for  sending  a  full  corps  of  Senators  and 
Representatives  to  the  National  Congress.  Both 
the  conventions  and  the  elections  were  largely 
manned  by  ex-Confederates,  some  of  them  wear- 
ing the  uniform  which  they  wore  when  fighting 
against  the  Government. 

When  Congress  met  in  December,  1865,  Alex- 
ander H.  Stephens,  late  Vice-President  of  the 


Page  One  Hundred-fifty-eight 

Confederacy,  appeared  in  Washington  full  of  ar- 
gument as  to  why  he  should  be  admitted  as  a 
United  States  Senator  from  Georgia.  Other  men 
less  noted  but  not  less  guilty  as  enemies  of  the 
Union  came  from  other  sections  of  the  South,  in- 
voking the  Constitution  they  had  recently  repudi- 
ated, to  help  them  secure  seats  in  the  National 
Congress.  Their  boast  was  that  they  would  sub- 
mit to  no  condition  whatever  that  might  be  im- 
posed by  the  National  authority.  This  conduct 
can  scarcely  be  understood  unless  we  assume  the 
possession  of  phenomenal  innocence,  or  an  amaz- 
ing insolence  on  the  part  of  men  whose  trade  had 
been  war  and  politics. 

The  Southern  leaders  were  evidently  basing 
their  hope  for  a  false  assurance  that  the  backing 
of  the  President  would  enable  the  Reconstruction 
folly  to  run  its  full  course.  They  were  also  forti- 
fied by  the  sympathetic  statements  of  newspaper 
organs  in  the  North,  which  had  been  half  trea- 
sonable all  through  the  Civil  War.  But  it  turned 
out  that  these  organs  were  no  better  estimators  of 
Northern  public  opinion  in  the  second  case,  than 
they  were  in  the  first. 

The  meeting  of  the  Thirty-ninth  Congress  the 
first  Monday  in  December,  1865,  furnished  very 
positive  evidence  that  quick-action  Reconstruc- 
tion, though  promoted  by  the  President,  was  to 
encounter  an  opposition  which  forshadowed  its 
defeat.  Congress  was  not  slow  in  affirming  that 


Page  One  Hundred-fifty-nine 

the  work  of  Reconstruction  would  be  directed 
from  the  Capitol  and  not  from  the  White  House. 
This  position  was  emphasized  by  the  appointment 
of  a  strong  joint  Congressional  Committee  on  Re- 
construction. This  was  the  beginning  of  that 
prolonged  controversy  between  Congress  and  the 
Executive,  which  in  all  of  its  aspects  forms  a 
regrettable  part  of  our  National  history. 

The  amazing  thing  is  that  the  President  was 
not  able  to  see  the  end  from  the  beginning.  Con- 
sidering the  fact  that  each  House  of  Congress  has 
absolute  jurisdiction  over  its  own  members,  even 
an  obstinate  and  self-interested  Executive  ought 
to  have  imagined  that  neither  House  would  re- 
ceive undesirable,  and  as  the  loyal  sentiment  of 
the  country  believed,  unfit  men  as  members  of  the 
National  legislature.  Neither  the  country  nor 
Congress  considered  secession  and  rebellion  a 
joke,  to  be  applauded  by  a  distribution  of  honors 
among  the  jokers. 


JUST  BEFORE  SUNSET 

During  the  summer  of  1864,  two  attempts,  both 
of  them  abortive,  were  made  to  secure  peace 
between  the  United  States  and  the  Confederacy, 
by  negotiation  or  mediation.  Neither  would 
demand  even  mention  here,  had  not  one  of  them, 
partially  engineered  by  Horace  Greeley,  brought 
from  Mr.  Lincoln  a  most  suggestive  statement 
showing  his  feeling  as  to  what  he  considered  the 
results  of  the  war,  and  his  purpose  to  maintain 
them.  In  regard  to  the  contemplated  peace  parley 
he  said : 

"To  whom  it  may  concern : 

"Any  proposition  which  embraces  the  restoration  of 
peace,  the  integrity  of  the  whole  Union,  and  the  abandon- 
ment of  Slavery,  and  which  comes  by  and  with  an  author- 
ity that  can  control  the  armies  now  at  war  against  the 
United  States,  will  be  received  and  considered  by  the  Ex- 
ecutive Government,  of  the  United  States,  and  will  be  met 
by  liberal  terms  on  substantial  and  collateral  points;  and 
the  bearer  or  bearers  thereof  shall  have  safe  conduct  both 
ways. 

"(Signed)     ABRAHAM  LINCOLN." 

This  statement  was  pronounced  by  some  of  the 
supporters  of  the  Administration  Mr.  Lincoln's 
"short  platform,"  being  considered  a  sort  of  syn- 
opsis of  the  larger  declaration  of  faith  adopted  at 
Baltimore. 

Page  One  Hundred-sixty 


Page  One  Hundred-sixty-one 

If  any  one  imagined  that  there  had  ever  been 
any  disposition  on  the  part  of  Mr.  Lincoln  to  take 
a  back  track  regarding  slavery,  his  conduct  after 
his  triumphant  second  election,  must  have  set  such 
feeling  forever  at  rest. 

On  the  first  Monday  in  December,  1864,  Presi- 
dent Lincoln  sent  his  annual  message  to  Congress. 
It  contained  no  word  of  exultation  over  the  great 
victory  that  had  come  to  him  personally.  He  even 
avoided  criticism  of  his  adversaries.  On  the  sub- 
ject of  slavery  his  statements  were  most  explicit, 
and  his  words  in  behalf  of  freedom  without  com- 
promise, were  as  strong  as  he  could  make  them. 

While  the  Thirteenth  Amendment  to  the  Consti- 
tution, forever  abolishing  slavery,  had  passed  the 
Senate  at  the  previous  session  of  Congress,  it 
failed  to  secure  the  necessary  two-thirds  vote  in 
the  House.  Mr.  Lincoln,  in  this  message  recom- 
mended that  the  measure  be  reconsidered  and 
passed  at  the  pending  session.  Congress  met  the 
proposition  more  than  half  way,  and  on  the  31st 
of  January,  1865,  the  House  passed  the  Amend- 
ment by  a  vote  of  119  to  66. 

In  the  course  of  this  message,  Mr.  Lincoln  took 
pains  to  define  his  position  regarding  Emancipa- 
tion, in  the  following  language : 

"I  repeat  the  declaration  made  a  year  ago,  that  while 
I  remain  in  my  present  position,  I  shall  not  attempt  to 
retract  or  modify  the  Emancipation  Proclamation;  nor 
shall  I  return  to  slavery  any  person  who  is  free  by  the 

21 


Page  One  Hundred-sixty-two 

terms  of  that  Proclamation,  or  by  any  of  the  acts  of  Con- 
gress. . .  .If  the  people  should,  by  whatever  mode  or  means, 
make  it  an  Executive  duty  to  re-enslave  such  persons,  an- 
other and  not  I  must  be  their  instrument  to  perform  it." 

The  passage  of  the  Constitutional  Amendment 
seemed  to  entirely  fill  the  President's  cup  of 
rejoicing.  To  an  immense  crowd  which  gathered 
at  the  White  House  to  felicitate  him  on  the  happy 
event,  he  said:  "The  occasion  is  one  for  con- 
gratulation to  the  country  and  the  whole  world." 

The  movements  of  the  Government  both  legis- 
lative and  military,  in  the  winter  of  1864-65,  were 
all  of  a  nature  to  encourage  the  Union  cause.  By 
this  time  the  solid  anti-slavery  sentiment  of  the 
North  was  united  in  praise  of  the  President. 
Those  who  had  scoffed  and  scolded,  now  treated 
him  with  almost  worshipful  'reverence.  The  col- 
ored people,  in  their  simple  fashion,  showered  him 
with  adoration,  and  made  him  substantial  pres- 
ents, as  tokens  of  their  regard. 

If  Mr.  Lincoln  had  ever  been  the  victim  of  race 
prejudice,  it  had  all  been  taken  from  him  during 
his  official  life  in  Washington.  He  gave  audience 
to  Sojourner  Truth,  the  negro  prophetess;  he 
insisted  upon  the  attendance  of  Frederick  Doug- 
lass at  the  reception  following  the  second  inaug- 
ural, and  in  other  ways  manifested  his  personal 
interest  in  the  members  of  the  enslaved  race. 

The  end  of  the  war  was  at  hand.  Richmond 
was  taken  by  the  Union  forces,  General  Lee's 


Page  One  Hundred-sixty-three 

army  had  surrendered,  and  the  Nation  seemed  to 
be  turning  away  from  its  war  program,  to  face 
the  problem  of  peace,  when  the  great  calamity  of 
the  President's  assassination  came  upon  a  country 
wholly  unprepared  for  such  a  terrible  visitation  of 
sorrow.  Only  those  who  can  remember  those 
dark  days,  can  at  all  realize  the  condition  of  the 
public  mind  throughout  the  North.  Men,  women, 
and  children  of  all  classes  and  in  every  community 
stood  bowed  under  a  great  personal  sorrow,  which 
illustrated  the  universal  appreciation  of  the  coun- 
try's loss.  The  Nation  was  left  to  tread  its  way 
towards  restoration,  without  the  Great  Heart  that 
had  so  patiently  and  gently  guided  it  amid  the 
perils  of  war. 

In  closing  this  chapter,  it  may  be  well  to  briefly 
review  the  progressive  steps  by  which  the  fruits 
of  the  war  for  the  Union,  led  up  towards  the 
freedom  of  a  race : 

"First.  The  army  was  prohibited  from  returning  to 
rebel  masters  fugitive  slaves. 

"Second.  The  employment  of  fugitive  slaves  as  laborers 
in  the  army  was  sanctioned. 

"Third.  The  passage  of  a  law  confiscating-  and  con- 
ferring freedom  upon  slaves  used  for  insurrectionary  pur- 
poses. 

"Fourth.  The  abolition  of  slavery  in  the  National  capi- 
tal. 

"Fifth.  The  prohibition  of  slavery  in  all  of  the  terri- 
tories. 


Page  One  Hundred-sixty-four 

"Sixth.    A  law  giving  freedom  to  all  who  should  serve 
as  soldiers  in  the  army  or  navy. 

"Seventh.     A  law  emancipating  the  slaves  of  rebels. 
"Eighth.     The  Emancipation  Proclamation. 

"Ninth.     A  law  emancipating  the  families  of  all  who 
should  serve  in  the  army  or  navy  of  the  United  States. 

"Tenth.     The  repeal  of  the  Fugitive  slave  law. 

"Eleventh.  The  constitutional  amendment  abolishing 
and  prohibiting  slavery  throughout  the  Republic."1 

This  progressive  performance  represented  the 
growing  mind  of  President  Lincoln,  as  he  went 
about  the  task  of  saving  the  Nation,  and  securing 
freedom  for  the  race  that  had  toiled  for  more  than 
two  centuries,  under  the  heavy  hand  of  National 
injustice. 

1  The  History  of  Abraham  Lincoln  and  the  Overthrow  of 
Slavery.  By  Isaac  N.  Arnold,  p.  590. 


THE  RELIGIOUSLY-MINDED  LINCOLN 

Those  who  have  followed  this  story  in  all  of  its 
details,  have  undoubtedly  noted  the  combined 
ethical  and  religious  motives  which  operated  in 
determining  Mr.  Lincoln's  conduct.  As  time  went 
on  he  became  more  and  more  susceptible  to  these 
influences,  although  they  were  by  no  means  lack- 
ing at  any  time  in  his  remarkable  career. 

The  short  speech  made  to  his  neighbors  and 
friends  in  Springfield  before  he  started  for  Wash- 
ington, to  assume  the  office  of  President,  is  a  case 
in  point.  For  simple  eloquence  it  is  not  unlike  the 
Gettysburg  speech,  while  its  mingled  pathos  and 
prophecy  make  it  really  suggestive.  We  quote 
the  speech  entire : 

"My  friends,  no  one,  not  in  my  situation,  can  appreci- 
ate my  feeling  of  sadness  at  this  parting.  To  this  place, 
and  the  kindness  of  these  people,  I  owe  everything.  Here 
I  have  lived  a  quarter  of  a  century,  and  have  passed  from 
a  young  to  an  old  man.  Here  my  children  have  been  born, 
and  one  is  buried. 

"I  now  leave,  not  knowing  when  or  whether  ever  I  may 
return,  with  a  task  before  me  greater  than  that  which 
rested  upon  Washington.  Without  the  assistance  of  that 
Divine  Being  who  ever  attended  him,  I  cannot  succeed. 
With  that  assistance,  I  cannot  fail. 

"Trusting  in  Him,  who  can  go  with  me,  and  remain 
with  you,  and  be  everywhere  for  good,  let  us  confidently 
hope  that  all  will  yet  be  well.  To  His  care  commending 

Page  One  Hundred-sixty-five 


Page  One  Hundred-sixty-six 

you,  as  I  hope  in  your  prayers  you  will  commend  me,  I 
bid  you  an  affectionate  farewell." 

What  the  psychologists  generally  call  psychic 
phenomena,  the  popular  judgment  pronounces 
superstitions.  But  whatever  they  are,  many  great 
men  have  experienced  them,  and  few  have  risen 
superior  to  them.  Luther,  of  the  Reformation,  and 
Fox,  of  the  Quakers,  believed  more  or  less  in  the 
pet  superstitions  of  their  time. 

In  the  more  modern  world,  the  supposed  super- 
stitions have  kept  company  with  what  are  called 
psychic  experiences.  In  Lincoln's  case  there  are 
a  number  of  instances.  One  of  them  consisted  of 
a  dream  or  vision,  many  times  repeated,  into 
which  he  read  a  definite  and  similar  meaning,  and 
from  which  he  seemed  to  derive  assurance  and 
satisfaction.  The  late  Senator  George  F.  Hoar, 
of  Massachusetts,  quotes  the  following  in  his 
"Autobiography  of  Seventy  Years:" 


"General  Grant,  in  an  interview  with  the  President,  on 
the  14th  of  April,  the  day  he  was  shot,  expressed  some 
anxiety  as  to  the  news  from  Sherman.  The  President 
answered  him  in  that  singular  vein  of  poetic  mysticism, 
which  though  constantly  held  in  check  by  his  strong  com- 
mon sense,  formed  a  remarkable  element  in  his  character. 
He  assured  Grant  .that  the  news  would  come  soon,  and 
come  favorable,  for  he  had  last  night  had  his  usual  dream 
which  preceded  great  events.  He  seemed  to  be,  he  said, 
in  a  singular  and  indescribable  vessel,  but  always  the 
same,  moving  with  great  rapidity  towards  a  dark  and 


Page  One  Hundred-sixty-seven 

indefinite  shore.    He  had  had  this  dream  before  Antietam, 
Murfreesboro,  Gettysburg,  and  Vicksburg." 1 

In  attempting  to  understand  Lincoln,  his  in- 
tensely religious  nature  must  be  considered.  As 
has  been  noted  at  many  points  in  this  book,  he 
expressed  the  desire  to  do  the  will  of  God,  as  he 
performed  his  duty  regarding  a  preserved  nation, 
and  the  institution  of  slavery  so  closely  connected 
with  the  cause  of  the  Union.  Yet  what  John  Hay 
called  his  "strong  common  sense,"  lead  him  to 
take  into  account  the  human  element  in  the  round 
of  Divine  Providence.  He  was  sure  that  men  must 
be  induced  to  support  the  Government,  as  a  means 
of  saving  the  Union.  Mr.  Lincoln  looked  for  no 
supernatural  and  personal  intervention  of  tha 
Infinite  in  our  affairs,  arbitrarily  producing  right 
results,  while  men  sympathized  with  and  sus- 
tained evil  conduct,  and  wrong  methods.  In  his 
estimation  the  Union  was  to  be  saved,  and  the  end 
of  slavery  secured  by  a  Divinely  illuminated 
humanity,  knowing  the  right  and  doing  it. 

The  way  that  Lincoln's  mind  was  moved  by 
experiences  and  incidents  which  played  upon  his 
finer  feelings  is  not  hard  to  find.  In  January, 
1862,  his  little  son  Willie  died,  bringing  an  almost 
paralyzing  grief  to  the  President.  In  this  con- 
nection it  is  well  to  note  the  conditions  under 
which  Mr.  Lincoln  first  mentioned  the  Proclama- 

1  Letter  from  John  Hay  to  Senator  George  F.  Hoar,  dated 
April  18,  1903.  "Autobiography  of  Seventy  Years."  Vol.  I, 
D.  22. 


Page  One  Hundred-sixty-eight 

tion  to  a  member  of  his  cabinet.  It  was  on  the 
way  to  the  funeral  of  a  child  of  Secretary  Stanton, 
and  surely  a  time  when  Lincoln's  heart  was  made 
tender  in  memory  of  his  own  loss,  and  conse- 
quently considerate  of  the  dusky  children  held  in 
bondage. 

The  Sunday  before  his  death  President  Lincoln 
was  returning  from  a  visit  to  City  Point  and  Rich- 
mond. A  number  of  noted  men  were  with  him, 
among  them  Senator  Sumner.  In  the  midst  of 
the  conversation  Lincoln  took  a  copy  of  Shakes- 
peare out  of  his  pocket,  and  read  with  telling 
effect  the  lines  from  Macbeth : 

"Duncan  is  in  his  grave; 
After  life's  fitful  fever  he  sleeps  well; 
Treason  has  done  its  worst,  nor  steel  nor  poison, 
Malice  domestic,  foreign  envy, 
Nothing  can  touch  him  further." 

Senator  Sumner  was  very  much  impressed  by 
this  reading,  and  a  few  days  later,  when  the  end 
came,  those  who  heard  the  President,  thought  it 
sounded  like  prophesy. 

The  Lincoln  spirit,  utterly  devoid  of  malice,  was 
shown  with  singular  luster  in  the  closing  days  of 
his  life.  Mrs.  McCulloch,  wife  of  the  Secretary  of 
the  Treasury,  tells  this  incident  of  the  last  speech 
made  by  Lincoln  from  the  White  House  porch. 
As  he  spoke  his  little  son  Tad  stood  by  him.  In 
the  course  of  his  remarks  the  President  said, 
"What  shall  we  do  with  the  rebels?"  A  voice 


Page  One  Hundred-sixty-nine 

from  the  crowd  shouted,  "Hang  them!"  Tad 
looked  at  his  father,  and  remarked:  "No,  papa, 
not  hang  them,  but  hang  on  to  them !"  Mr.  Lin- 
coln replied,  "Tad  has  it,  we  must  hang  on  to 
them." 

The  last  inaugural  is  one  of  the  best  samples 
of  the  reverent  Lincoln  to  be  found  in  any  of  his 
public  utterances.  We  quote  the  closing  para- 
graphs : 

"On  the  occasion  corresponding  to  this,  four  years  ago, 
all  thoughts  were  anxiously  directed  to  an  impending 
civil  war.  All  dreaded  it.  All  sought  to  avert  it.  While 
the  Inaugural  Address  was  being  delivered  from  this  place, 
devoted  altogether  to  the  saving  of  the  Union  without 
war,  insurgent  agents  were  in  the  city,  seeking  to  destroy 
it  without  war — seeking  to  dissolve  the  Union  and  divide 
the  effects  by  negotiation.  Both  parties  deprecated  war; 
but  one  of  them  would  make  war  rather  than  let  the  nation 
survive;  and  the  other  would  accept  war  rather  than  let 
it  perish — and  the  war  came.  One-eighth  of  the  whole 
population  were  colored  slaves,  not  distributed  generally 
over  the  Union,  but  localized  in  the  Southern  part  of  it. 
These  slaves  constituted  a  peculiar  and  beneficial  inter- 
est. All  knew  that  this  interest  was  somehow  the  cause 
of  the  war.  To  strengthen,  perpetuate,  and  extend  this 
interest  was  the  object  for  which  the  insurgents  would 
rend  the  Union  even  by  war;  while  the  Government 
claimed  no  right  to  do  more  than  to  restrict  the  terri- 
torial enlargement  of  it.  Neither  party  expected  for  the 
war  the  magnitude  nor  the  duration  which  it  has  already 
attained.  Neither  anticipated  that  the  cause  of  the  con- 
flict might  cease  with,  or  even  before,  the  conflict  itself 
should  cease.  Each  looked  for  an  easier  triumph  and  a 

22 


Page  One  Hundred-seventy 

result  less  fundamental  and  astounding.  Both  read  the 
same  Bible  and  pray  to  the  same  God,  and  each  invokes 
His  aid  against  the  other.  It  may  seem  strange  that  any 
men  should  dare  to  ask  a  just  God's  assistance  in  wringing 
their  bread  from  the  sweat  of  other  men's  faces.  But  let 
us  judge  not,  that  we  be  not  judged.  The  prayer  of  both 
could  not  be  answered;  that  of  neither  has  been  answered 
fully.  The  Almighty  has  His  own  purposes.  'Woe  unto 
the  world  because  of  offenses;  for  it  must  needs  be  that 
offenses  come,  but  woe  to  that  man  by  whom  the  offense 
cometh.'  If  we  shall  suppose  that  American  Slavery  is 
one  of  those  offenses  which,  in  the  providence  of  God, 
must  needs  come,  but  which,  having  continued  through 
His  appointed  time,  He  now  wills  to  remove,  and  that  He 
gives  to  both  North  and  South  this  terrible  war  as  the 
woe  due  to  those  by  whom  the  offense  came,  shall  we 
discern  therein  any  departure  from  those  Divine  attributes 
which  the  believers  in  a  loving  God  always  ascribe  to  him? 
Fondly  do  we  hope,  fervently  do  we  pray,  that  this  mighty 
scourge  of  war  may  speedily  pass  away.  Yet  if  God 
wills  that  it  continue  until  all  the  wealth  piled  up  by  the 
bondman's  two  hundred  and  fifty  years  of  unrequited  toil 
shall  be  sunk,  and  until  every  drop  of  blood  drawn  from 
the  lash  shall  be  paid  by  another  drawn  with  the  sword, 
as  was  said  three  thousand  years  ago,  so  still  it  must  be 
said,  'The  judgments  of  the  Lord  are  true  and  righteous 
altogether.' 

"With  malice  toward  none,  with  charity  for  all,  with 
firmness  in  the  right  as  God  gives  us  to  see  the  right, 
let  us  strive  to  finish  the  work  we  are  in,  to  bind  up  the 
Nation's  wounds,  to  care  for  him  who  shall  have  borne 
the  battle  and  for  his  widow  and  his  orphan,  to  do  all 
which  may  achieve  and  cherish  a  just  and  a  lasting  peace 
among  ourselves  and  with  all  nations." 

Fortunately  we  have  Lincoln's  own  estimate  of 
this,  his  last  state  paper.     Thurlow  Weed,  the 


Page  One  Hundred-seventy-one 

veteran  politician  and  editor,  of  Albany,  N.  Y., 
wrote  Lincoln  a  letter  of  commendation  and 
received  the  following  in  reply : 

"Dear  Mr.  Weed:  Everyone  likes  a  compliment.  Thank 
you  for  yours  on  my  little  notification  speech  and  on  the 
recent  inaugural  address.  I  expect  the  latter  to  wear  as 
well  or,  perhaps  better  than,  anything  I  have  produced; 
but  I  believe  it  is  not  immediately  popular.  Men  are  not 
flattered  by  being  shown  that  there  has  been  a  difference 
of  purpose  between  the  Almighty  and  them.  To  deny  it, 
however,  in  this  case,  is  to  deny  that  there  is  a  God  gov- 
erning the  world.  It  is  a  truth  which  I  thought  needed 
to  be  told,  and  as  whatever  of  humiliation  there  is  in  it 
falls  most  directly  on  myself,  I  thought  others  might 
afford  for  me  to  tell  it." a 

It  would  seem  that  Mr.  Lincoln  properly  esti- 
mated the  recognition  which  posterity  would  give 
to  the  Second  Inaugural.  This  letter  properly 
voices  Lincoln's  deep  religious  feeling. 

On  the  night  of  November  10,  1864,  about  mid- 
night, President  Lincoln  was  leaving  the  War 
Department.  The  news  of  his  re-election  had  just 
been  received.  To  the  multitude  lining  the  street, 
he  made  a  speech,  in  which  among  other  things, 
he  said : 

"So  long  as  I  have  been  here  I  have  not  willingly  planted 
a  thorn  in  any  man's  bosom.  While  I  am  deeply  sensible 
of  the  high  compliment  of  re-election,  and  duly  grateful, 

2  Abraham  Lincoln ;  a  History.  By  John  G.  Nicolay  and 
John  Hay.  Vol.  X,  p.  140. 


Page  One  Hundred-seventy-two 

as  I  trust  to  Almighty  God  for  having  directed  my  coun- 
trymen to  a  right  conclusion,  as  I  think  for  their  own 
good,  it  adds  nothing  to  my  satisfaction  that  any  other 
man  may  be  disappointed  or  pained  by  the  result.  May 
I  ask  those  who  have  not  differed  from  me  to  join  with 
me  in  this  same  spirit  toward  those  that  have?" 

There  is  on  record  a  striking  summing  up  of 
Lincoln's  career  as  President,  from  his  friend 
John  M.  Harlan.  Speaking  of  the  change  that 
came  over  Lincoln  after  the  strain  of  the  war 
period  had  passed  away,  Mr.  Harlan  said  : 

"He  was  in  fact  transfigured,  that  indescribable  sad- 
ness which  had  previously  seemed  to  be  an  adamantine 
element  of  his  very  being,  had  been  suddenly  changed  for 
an  equally  indescribable  expression  of  serene  joy,  as  if 
conscious  that  the  great  purpose  of  his  life  had  been 
achieved."  3 

This  picture  of  the  transfigured  and  really 
emancipated  Lincoln,  may  well  close  that  part  of 
our  labor  particularly  dealing  with  the  Great 
Emancipator. 


p.  2 


1  The  Life  of  Abraham  Lincoln.    By  Ida  M.  Tarbell.    Vol.  II, 

•  >•:}•> 


THE  RECONSTRUCTION  AMENDMENT 

Before  the  close  of  1865,  the  conventions  in 
President  Johnson's  so-called  reconstructed1  states, 
had  given  way  to  legislatures,  which  proceeded  to 
give  ample  evidence  of  the  spirit  that  was  in  the 
South,  following  the  Rebellion.  That  spirit  was 
that  of  the  old  South,  possibly  plus  the  hatred  and 
animosities  which  the  war  had  engendered.  These 
legislatures  were  made  up  principally  of  the 
officers  and  rank  and  file  of  the  Confederate  Army, 
and  the  laws  which  they  proceeded  to  enact  were 
freighted  with  prejudice  and  overloaded  with  in- 
justice for  the  emancipated  race.  By  the  enact- 
ment of  peculiar  vagrant  laws,  and  a  system  of 
fines  they  proceeded  to  pave  the  way  for  a  type  of 
peonage  which  contained  most  of  the  bad  features 
of  slavery,  and  none  of  its  good  ones.  The  child- 
ren of  the  ex-slaves  were  put  absolutely  at  the 
mercy  of  the  stronger  race  by  a  system  of  so-called 
apprentice  laws  which  established  a  relationship 
of  master  and  servant,  and  endowed  the  master 
•  with  absolute  control  over  the  minors,  thus  bind- 
ing the  negro  children  to  the  soil.  Those  laws 
were  supplemented  by  taxation  for  the  blacks  who 
possessed  no  tangible  property,  which  only  helped 
to  insure  their  dependence  if  not  their  servitude. 
Then  to  cap  the  climax,  assemblages  of  negroes 
were  interdicted,  and  power  was  given  to  police- 
Page  One  Hundred-seventy-three 


Page  One  Hundred-seventy-four 

men  and  magistrates  to  consider  any  evening 
meeting  of  colored  people  a  disorderly  gathering, 
whose  participants  could  be  arrested  on  sight.  It 
is  not  necessary  to  go  into  the  details  of  this  legis- 
lation -state  by  state.  While  it  varied  in  the  dif- 
ferent states,  the  spirit  and  tendency  already 
cited,  animated  them  all.  It  should  be  constantly 
remembered  that  these  unjust  laws  were  enacted 
before  the  coming  of  "carpet-bag"  rule,  and  were 
therefore  without  the  excuse  which  that  form  of 
government  was  supposed  to  warrant. 

It  has  been  frequently  intimated  if  not  asserted 
that  the  South  was  exasperated  by  having  negro 
suffrage  forced  on  that  section.  But  such  is  not 
the  case.  At  this  time  no  tangible  proposition  of 
this  sort  having  behind  it  any  considerable  public 
opinion,  had  been  suggested.  Probably  as  ex- 
treme and  radical  a  man  as  sat  in  the  House  of 
Representatives,  was  Thaddeus  Stevens,  of  Penn- 
sylvania. On  the  18th  of  December,  1865,  Mr. 
Stevens  formally  opened  the  debate  on  Recon- 
struction in  the  House.  In  this  speech  there  was 
only  a  tentative  reference  to  full  manhood  suf- 
rage.  The  most  radical  utterance  on  the  subject 
in  this  speech  was  a  clear-cut  statement  that  the 
negroes  without  votes  should  not  be  reckoned  in 
the  basis  of  Congressional  representation  in  the 
South.  This,  in  fact,  was  to  become  the  bed-rock 
test  in  the  Reconstruction  of  the  rebellious  states. 

There  was  much  debate  during  the  succeeding 
months,  and  not  a  little  legislation  having  for  its 


Page  One  Hundred-seventy-five 

purpose  the  protection  of  "the  civil,  educational, 
and  property  rights  of  the  negroes,  the  same  being 
intended  to  supplement  and  offset  the  hard  regula- 
tions enacted  by  President  Johnson's  reconstruc- 
ted states.  Some  of  these  laws  established  the 
dangerous  precedent  of  military  jurisdiction  by 
the  Government.  But  even  then,  general  negro 
suffrage  was  not  seriously  advocated  by  anybody. 
Mr.  Fessenden,  of  Maine,  one  of  the  advance  anti- 
slavery  men,  in  the  midst  of  a  debate,  made  this 
parenthetical  remark: 

"I  think  the  Honorable  Senator  from  Massachusetts 
himself  (Mr.  Sumner),  who  is  the"  great  champion  of 
universal  suffrage,  would  hardly  contend  that  now,  at  this 
time,  the  whole  of  the  population  of  the  recent  slave  States 
is  fit  to  be  admitted  to  the  exercise  of  the  right  of  suff- 
rage." 

During  the  winter  of  1866,  what  came  to  be 
known  as  the  real  Reconstruction  measures  were 
introduced  and  debated  in  Congress.  Among 
them,  and  holding  all  the  rest  in  solution,  was 
the  Fourteenth  Amendment  to  the  Constitution. 
This  amendment,  which  demands  careful  con- 
sideration, for  the  bearing  it  has  on  future  legis- 
lation in  the  Southern  States,  is  as  follows: 

1.  All  persons  born  or  naturalized  in  the  United  States, 
and  subject  to  the  jurisdiction  thereof,  are  citizens  of  the 
United  States  and  of  the  State  wherein  they  reside.  No 
State  shall  make  or  enforce  any  law  which  shall  abridge 
the  privileges  or  immunities  of  citizens  of  the  United 


Page  One  Hundred-seventy-six 

States;  nor  shall  any  States  deprive  any  person  of  life, 
liberty,  or  property  without  due  process  of  law  nor  deny 
to  any  person  within  its  jurisdiction  the  equal  protection 
of  the  laws. 

2.  Representatives  shall  be  apportioned  among  the  sev- 
eral States  according  to  their  respective  numbers,  counting 
the   whole   number   of   persons   in   each    State,   excluding 
Indians  not  taxed.     But  when  the  right  to  vote  at  any 
election  for  the  choice  of  electors  for  President  and  Vice- 
President  of  the  United  States,  Representatives  in  Con- 
gress, the  executive  and  judicial  officers  of  a  State,  or  the 
members  of  the  Legislature  thereof,  is  denied  to  any  of 
the  male  members  of  such  State,  being  of  twenty-one  years 
of  age,  and  citizens  of  the  United  States,  or  in  any  way 
abridged,   except   for   participation   in   rebellion   or  other 
crime,  the  basis  of  representation  therein  shall  be  reduced 
in  the  proportion  which  the  number  of  such  male  citizens 
shall  bear  to  the  whole  number  of  male  citizens  twenty-one 
years  of  age  in  such  State. 

3.  No  person  shall  be  a   Senator  or  Representative  in 
Congress,  or  elector  of  President  and  Vice-President,  or 
holding   any   office,    civil   or   military,   under   the    United 
States,  who,  having  previously  taken  an  oath,  as  a  member 
of  Congress,  or  as  an  officer  of  the  United  States,  or  as  a 
member  of  any  State  Legislature,  or  as  an  executive  or 
judicial  officer  of  any  State,  to  support  the  Constitution 
of  the  United  States,  shall  have  engaged  in  insurrection 
or.  rebellion  against  the  same,  or  given  aid  and  comfort  to 
the  enemies  thereof.  But  Congress  may,  by  vote  of  two- 
thirds  of  each  House,  remove  such  disability. 

4.  The  validity  of  the  public  debt  of  the  United  States, 
authorized  by  law,  including  debts  incurred  for  payment 
of  pensions  and  bounties  for  services  in  suppressing  insur- 
rection and  rebellion,  shall  not  be  questioned.    But  neither 
the  United  States  nor  any  State  shall  assume  or  pay  any 
debt  or  obligation  incurred  in  aid  of  insurrection  or  rebel- 


Page  One  Hundred-seventy-seven 

lion  against  the  United  States,  or  any  claim  for  the  loss 
or  emancipation  of  any  slave;  but  all  such  debts,  obliga- 
tions, and  claims  shall  be  held  illegal  and  void. 

5.  The  Congress  shall  have  power  to  enforce  by  ap- 
proximate legislation  the  provisions  of  this  article. 

Supplementing  the  passage  of  this  amendment, 
a  bill  was  introduced  providing  that  "whenever 
said  amendment  shall  become  part  of  the  Consti- 
tution of  the  United  States,  and  any  state  lately  in 
insurrection  shall  have  ratified  the  same  and  shall 
have  modified  its  constitution  and  laws  in  con- 
formity therewith,"  such  state  should  be  entitled 
to  national  representation,  so  that  the  Fourteenth 
Amendment  really  became  the  basis  of  re-admis- 
sion to  the  Union  on  the  part  of  the  rebellious 
states. 


23 


FOLLOWING  THE  AMENDMENT 

The  Congressional  campaigns  in  the  various 
states  in  1866,  were  probably  the  most  remark- 
able and  exciting  in  the  history  of  the  country, 
assuming  all  of  the  interest  and  importance  of  a 
Presidential  contest,  for  the  issues  involved  were 
really  National.  When  the  returns  came  in  they 
showed  an  overwhelming  defeat  for  President 
Johnson  and  his  Reconstruction  plan.  Various 
events  contributed  to  the  solidifying  of  Northern 
public  opinion,  none  more  so  than  the  New 
Orleans  massacre,  which  occurred  on  the  30th  of 
July,  1866.  It  had  been  decided  to  call  the  con- 
vention which  adopted  Louisiana's  free  state  con- 
stitution in  1864,  together  again.  This  was  the 
occasion  of  a  scene  of  riot  and  disorder  which 
assumed  all  the  characteristics  of  a  bloody  battle. 
Two  score  of  people  were  killed  outright,  and  at 
least  two  hundred  wounded.  Making  every  pos- 
sible allowance  for  provocation  in  the  over- 
wrought condition  of  the  southern  mind,  this  riot 
was  simply  the  sectional  way  of  protesting  against 
any  plan  of  Reconstruction  which  did  not  provide 
for  the  states  lately  in  rebellion,  returning  to  the 
Union  on  their  own  terms.  It  was  also  a  matter 
of  evidence  that  the  lives  and  property  of  loyal 
men  were  unsafe  in  the  South,  while  soldiers  of 

Page  One  Hundred-seventy-eight 


Page  One  Hundred-seventy-nine 

the   Union  were   insulted  and  assulted,   and  in 
some  instances  assassinated. 

It  having  been  determined  that  the  way  to  com- 
plete Reconstruction  in  the  Southern  States  was 
by  accepting  the  Fourteenth  Amendment  to  the 
Constitution,  all  of  the  late  Confederate  States 
except  Tennessee,  proceeded  to  consider  the 
amendment  in  the  winter  of  1866-67.  The  legis- 
latures of  every  one  of  these  states  refused  to 
accept  the  terms  provided,  some  of  them  with 
practical  unanimity.  As  Tennessee  had  previ- 
ously adopted  the  Amendment,  her  representa- 
tives were  already  occupying  seats  in  Congress. 

In  February,  1867,  the  Committee  on  Recon- 
struction introduced  a  bill  in  Congress  which  was 
a  sample  of  the  drastic  legislation  which  became 
the  rule  in  the  case  from  that  time  forward. 
Thaddeus  Stevens,  in  presenting  the  measure 
summed  up  its  provisions  in  this  fashion : 

"It  provides  that  the  ten  disorganized  States  shall  be 
divided  into  five  military  districts;  that  the  Commander 
of  the  Army  shall  take  charge  of  them,  through  his  officers 
not  below  the  rank  of  Brigadier-General,  who  shall  have 
the  general  supervision  of  the  peace,  quiet,  and  protection 
of  the  people,  loyal  and  disloyal,  who  reside  within  those 
precincts;  and  that  to  do  so,  he  may  use,  as  the  law  of 
nations  would  authorize  him  to  do,  the  legal  tribunals 
wherever  he  may  find  them  competent;  but  these  tribunals 
are  to  be  considered  of  no  validity  per  se,  of  no  intrinsic 
force,  of  no  force  in  consequence  of  their  origin ;  the  ques- 
tion being  wholly  within  the  power  of  the  conqueror,  and 


Page  One  Hundred-eighty 

to  remain  until  that  conqueror  shall  permanently  supply 
their  place  with  something  else." 

This  measure  as  outlined  by  Mr.  Stevens,  was 
slightly  amended,  but  in  no  vital  sense.  It 
passed  both  Houses,  was  vetoed  by  the  President, 
and  promptly  passed  over  the  veto.  No  American 
can  view  legislation  of  this  sort  with  satisfaction. 
Had  the  original  moderate  program  of  Recon- 
struction been  accepted  in  good  faith  by  the  South, 
the  arbitrary  government  resting  on  bayonets, 
might  never  have  appeared.  Congress  believed 
that  the  provisional  governments  of  the  ex-Con- 
federate States  were  not  Republican,  and  that  they 
afforded  no  security  for  either  the  persons  or 
property  of  loyal  white  men,  while  they  made  no 
pretense  of  protracting  the  black  man  in  the  en- 
joyment of  his  rights. 

When  Congress  had  its  turn  at  Reconstruction, 
the  ten  ex-Confederate  States,  had  a  sudden 
change  of  heart.  Rapidly  the  states  which  had 
rejected  the  Fourteenth  Amendment  with  prac- 
tical unanimity,  proceeded  to  adopt  it  with  alac- 
rity, and  by  popular  vote,  at  elections  where  the 
rights  of  all  legal  voters  were  adequately  guarded. 
Yet  books  pretending  to  contain  popular  informa- 
tion tell  us  that  the  Fourteenth  Amendment  was 
"rejected  by  the  ten  Southern  States.  The  ten 
Southern  States  subsequently  ratified  under  pres- 
sure." 1 

1  World  Almanac,  1914,  p.  93. 

The  word  "protracting,"  next  to  last  line  in  second  paragraph, 
should  be  protecting. 


Page  One  Hundred-eighty-one 

Thus  it  is  intended  to  throw  doubt  on  the  adop- 
tion of  the  amendment,  which  amounts  to  a  charge 
that  the  rump  state  governments  set  up  by 
Andrew  Johnson  were  the  real  things,  while  those 
reconstructed  by  Act  of  Congress  were  something 
else.  There  is  more  honesty  and  boldness  in  thus 
rewriting  history  in  a  recent  magazine  article 
written  by  a  Southern  woman.  She  does  not  claim 
that  the  aforesaid  amendment  was  not  properly 
ratified,  but  gets  over  the  matter  in  this  fashion : 

"The  Southern  States  never  made  any  pretense  of  sub- 
mitting to  the  Fourteenth  and  Fifteenth  Amendments, 
but,  obeying  the  natural  and  higher  law,  gave  notice  that 
the  electorate  created  by  the  Federal  Government  would 
vote  at  its  peril."2 

Plainly  stated  this  is  simply  an  admission  that 
the  negro  vote  was  suppressed  by  force  or  fraud, 
or  both,  and  that  ratification  of  the  Fourteenth 
Amendment  in  haste,  was  simply  a  transaction  to 
enable  the  Confederate  States  to  help  run  the 
National  Government,  while  the  provisions  of  the 
amendment  were  to  be  nullified  at  leisure.  That 
this  contract  of  nullification  was  faithfully  kept, 
time  has  amply  proven.  The  force  may  have  dis- 
appeared, but  political  cunning  still  permits  the 
states  in  rebellion  to  enjoy  a  relative  representa- 
tion in  Congress  not  accorded  to  loyal  states,  the 


2  North  An-frican  Review  for  March,  Article,  "Two  Suffrage 
Mistakes."     By  Molly  Elliot  Seawell,  a  native  of  Virginia. 


Page  One  Hundred-eighty-two 

same  representation  being  partly  based  on  a  dis- 
franchised race. 

It  is  not  within  the  scope  of  this  work  to  review 
the  history  of  the  so-called  "carpet-bag"  govern- 
ments, or  the  crimes  of  the  Ku-Klux  Clan. 
Neither  admits  of  valid  defence,  and  both  repre- 
sent the  folly  and  crime  which  may  be  committed 
in  the  name  of  free  government.  How  much  both 
the  "carpet-bag"  governments,  and  the  Ku-Klux 
Clan  acted  and  reacted  upon  each  other,  inviting 
murder  and  outrage  on  the  one  side,  and  espionage 
and  injustice  on  the  other,  is  open  to  interminable 
debate,  with  the  jury  of  public  opinion  likely  to 
wrangle  in  perpetual  disagreement  in  considering 
the  case. 

Our  remaining  purpose  is  rather  to  deal  with 
the  live  problems,  the  outgrowth  of  the  Rebellion, 
which  our  generation,  and  those  who  are  to  come 
after  us,  must  attempt  to  solve. 


THE  AFTERMATH 

The  presentation  which  we  have  attempted  to 
make  in  the  preceding  pages,  would  hardly  be 
complete  unless  brought  down  to  date,  in  a  con- 
sideration of  conditions  which  followed  emancipa- 
tion. These  matters  have  contributed  to  what  we 
now  call  the  "race  problem."  If  the  problem  has 
not  become  acute,  it  is  of  vital  importance  to 
every  department  of  our  national  life,  and  every 
phase  of  human  progress. 

It  is  not  our  purpose  to  more  than  briefly  con- 
template or  criticise  the  right-hand  and  left-hand 
errors  which  characterized  the  Reconstruction 
period  which  followed  the  Civil  War,  and  which  to 
a  certain  extent  persist  unto  this  day. 

The  fast  friends  of  the  negro;  those  who  had 
spent  and  been  spent  for  his  freedom;  and  who 
denied  themselves  fortunes,  remembering  the 
black  men  in  bonds  as  being  bound  with  them, 
fell  into  perhaps  a  pardonable,  and  surely  a  fatal 
error.  They  capitalized  the  word  freedom  too 
heavily.  They  fancied  that  liberty  for  a  race 
verbally  engrafted  on  the  Constitution  and  framed 
into  statutes,  would  suddenly  change  the  constitu- 
tion of  dusky  human  nature.  The  fancy  was  a 
dream  that  could  not  come  true.  It  takes  some- 
thing besides  a  law  to  make  men  either  capable  to 
conceive  or  responsible  to  apply  the  ideas  and 

Page  One  Hundred-eighty-three 


Page  One  Hundred-eighty-four 

ideals  that  make  for  progress.  Men  of  fine  fiber 
and  tender  conscience  have  ever  been  prone  to 
sympathize  with  the  victims  of  wrong  and  in- 
justice to  the  point  of  excusing  weakness  and 
sometimes  wickedness.  Such  was  the  honest  atti- 
tude of  mind  of  many  old-line  abolitionists,  and 
the  national  politicians  who  became  the  organized 
force  behind  the  negro's  political  enfranchise- 
ment. This  analysis  is  not  to  be  construed  into 
condemnation.  These  errors  of  judgment,  how- 
ever, paved  the  way  for  the  complementary  errors 
which  the  defeated  leaders  of  the  Confederacy, 
and  their  children  have  employed  and  are  now  em- 
ploying in  dealing  with  the  race  problem. 

The  errors  on  both  sides  were  the  rather 
natural  results  of  the  way  in  which  the  Nation 
fancied  that  it  disposed  of  the  issue  of  slavery. 
We  fought  it  out  in  the  domain  of  the  strongest 
batallions  on  the  field  of  carnage,  rather  than  in 
the  atmosphere  of  the  concerned  conscience. 
Rankling  wounds  and  open  sores  were  the  result 
of  the  conflict,  and  on  one  side  the  hatreds  of  the 
conquered  have  been  visited  upon  the  innocent 
cause  of  the  conflict. 

Had  the  National  conscience  seen  fit  to  elim- 
inate the  National  curse  by  peaceful  evolutionary 
processes,  the  negro  slaves  might  have  been  grad- 
ually absorbed  into  the  body  politic,  after  educa- 
tional and  economic  opportunity  had  helped  to 
qualify  them  to  thus  take  their  places  in  the  field 
of  social  and  political  endeavor.  But  the  people 


Page  One  Hundred-eighty-five 

would  not  so  have  it,  and  the  war  came,  with  all 
of  its  train   of  evils,   immediate  and   remote. 
Never  were   Milton's  telling   lines   better  illus- 
trated : 

"At  length  from  us  may  find,  who  overcomes 
By  force,  hath  overcome  but  half  his  foe." 

The  penalty  in  this  case  for  trying  to  secure 
moral  justice  by  force,  was  the  intensification  of 
a  problem  which  the  war  did  not  settle.  By  a 
sort  of  perversity  of  human  nature,  men  are  apt 
to  hate  and  despise  those  whom  they  have 
wronged.  This  characteristic  has  helped  to  ren- 
der more  perplexing  the  race  problem.  While 
this  is  true,  the  contagion  of  race  prejudice,  has 
spread  over  the  country,  to  help  complicate  the 
situation.  The  whole  matter  can  only  yield  to  the 
"better  angel  of  our  nature,"  and  at  this  point  it 
is  not  too  much  to  suggest  that  the  spirit  that  was 
in  Lincoln  must  be  the  sobering  and  saving  force 
in  the  Republic. 

That  spirit  manifested  itself  in  Lincoln's  pur- 
pose to  deal  with  men  as  men,  on  the  basis  of 
their  innate  merit  and  their  manifest  need.  We 
have  evidence  as  to  Lincoln's  attitude  towards  the 
negro  in  the  testimony  of  Frederick  Douglass,  the 
foremost  colored  man  of  his  time,  as  follows : 

"In  all  my  interviews  with  Mr.  Lincoln  I  was  impressed 
with  his  entire  freedom  from  popular  prejudice  against 

24 


Page  One  Hondred-eighty-six 

the  colored  race.  He  was  the  first  great  man  that  I  talked 
with  in  the  United  States  freely,  who  in  no  single  instance 
reminded  me  of  the  difference  between  himself  and  myself, 
of  the  difference  of  color,  and  I  thought  that  all  the  more 
remarkable  because  he  came  from  a  State  where  there 
were  black  laws." 1 

If  we  could  bring  this  spirit  to  the  front  in 
dealing  with  the  race  problem,  we  would  find  its 
solution  natural  and  easy.  We  shall  devote  the 
remaining  pages  of  this  book  to  a  consideration 
of  conduct  which  has  not  been  governed  by  the 
Lincoln  spirit. 

1  Reminiscences  of  Abraham  Lincoln.     By   Allen  Thorndike 
Rice,  p.  193. 


NULLIFYING  THE  CONSTITUTION 

Remembering  the  compact  in  the  Fourteenth 
Amendment  to  the  Constitution,  which  provides 
for  a  lessened  Congressional  representation  from 
such  states  as  may  disfranchise  any  of  its  male 
citizens  over  twenty-one  years  of  age,  except  for 
rebellion  or  crime  of  which  the  party  had  been 
duly  convicted,  what  has  been  going  on  in  the 
Southern  States  during  the  past  few  years,  is  to 
say  the  least  suggestive. 

Two  of  the  ex-Confederate  States  have  very 
adroitly  disfranchised  their  colored  citizens  by 
constitutional  provision.  These  states  have  pro- 
vided educational  or  property  qualifications,  or 
both,  for  the  suffrage.  Then  the  so-called  grand- 
father clause  in  the  Constitution  exempts  the 
white  men  who  are  illiterate,  or  who  do  not  pay 
taxes,  from  these  qualifications.  As  the  institu- 
tion of  slavery  secured  recognition  in  the  original 
Constitution,  without  using  the  word  slave  or 
negro,  so  the  South  has  successfully  disfranchised 
its  colored  men,  without  direct  reference  to  them 
by  name,  which  may  or  may  not  have  had  in  view 
making  decision  by  the  higher  courts  in  the  case 
difficult. 

Louisiana  and  North  Carolina  have  a  grand- 
Page  One  Hundred-eighty-seven 


Page  One  Hundred-eighty-eight 

father  clause  in  their  Constitution.     Louisiana's 
clause  reads  as  follows : 

"No  male  person  who  was,  on  January  1,  1867,  or  at  any 
time  prior  thereto,  .entitled  to  vote  under  the  constitution 
or  statutes  of  any  state  of  the  United  States  wherein  he 
then  resided,  and  no  son  or  grandson  of  any  such  person, 
not  less  than  21  years  of  age,  at  the  date  of  the  adoption 
of  this  constitution,  and  no  male  person  of  foreign  birth, 
who  was  naturalized  prior  to  the  1st  day  of  January,  1898,' 
shall  'be  denied  the  right  to  register  and  vote  in  this  state, 
by  reason  of  his  failure  to  possess  the  educational  and 
property  qualifications  prescribed  by  this  Constitution." 1 

North  Carolina's  grandfather  clause  is  a  little 
more  simple  but  of  the  same  general  character  as 
Louisiana's.  After  providing  that  a  voter  shall 
pay  tax  on  property  of  the  value  of  $300,  and  be 
able  to  read  or  write  any  section  of  the  Constitu- 
tion in  the  English  language,  we  find  this  proviso : 

"But  no  male  person  who  was,  on  January  1,  1867,  or 
at  any  time  prior  thereto,  entitled  to  vote  under  the  laws 
of  any  state  of  the  United  States  wherein  he  then  resided, 
and  no  lineal  descendant  of  any  such  person  shall  be 
denied  the  right  to  register  and  vote  at  any  election  in  this 
state  by  reason  of  his  failure  to  possess  the  educational 
qualifications  herein  prescribed:  Provided  he  shall  have 
registered  in  accordance  with  the  terms  of  this  section 
prior  to  December  1,  1908." 2 

1  Federal  and  State  Constitutions.  By  Francis  Newton 
Thorpe,  Ph.D.,  LL.D.  Vol.  III.,  p.  1563. 

3  Constitution  of  North  Carolina,  edition  of  1914,  p.  20. 


Page  One  Hundred-eighty-nine 

The  Fourteenth  Amendment  in  its  fourth  sec- 
tion, would  seem  to  prohibit  any  attempt  on  the 
part  of  any  state,  to  reward  men  who  took  part 
in  the  Rebellion  against  the  Government,  as  will 
be  seen  by  consulting  page  176  of  this  book.  In 
spite  of  all  this,  several  of  the  ex-Confederate 
states  have  granted  pensions  to  soldiers  who 
fought  to  destroy  the  Union.  Such  a  pension  is  a 
practical  acknowledgement  of  an  obligation  on 
the  part  of  the  state  to  such  pensioner.  But  this 
movement  has  had  distinguished  approval  from 
the  North.  The  platform  of  the  political  party 
which  cast  the  second  largest  number  of  votes 
in  the  last  Presidential  election,  contained  the 
following  plank: 

"And  we  approve  the  policy  of  the  Southern  States  in 
granting  pensions  to  the  ex-Confederate  soldiers  and 
sailors  and  their  widows  and  orphans."3 

The  granting  of  pensions  to  Confederate 
soldiers  and  sailors  is  quite  an  extensive  practice 
in  some  of  the  Southern  States.  South  Carolina 
may  spend,  and  probably  does  spend,  $250,000  a 
year  in  such  pensions,  and  does  so  by  warrant  of 
law.5 

The  disfranchisement  of  the  negro  is  accom- 
plished in  some  of  the  Southern  States  by  stat- 
utory indirection,  rather  than  by  direct  constitu- 

3  Platform  of  Progressive  Party,  World  Almanac,  1913.  p. 
697. 

"Code  of  Laws  of  South  Carolina,  1912,  p.  432. 


Page  One  Hundred-ninety 

tional  provision.  This  is  done  through  the  ar- 
bitrary power  conferred  upon  and  exercised  by 
the  Boards  of  Registration.  Such  boards  may  on 
their  own  motion  and  for  any  cause  decide  that  an 
applicant  should  not  go  on  the  list.  Any  such  per- 
son feeling  aggrieved,  has  "The  right  of  appeal 
from  the  decision  of  the  Board  of  Registration 
denying  him  registration,  to  the  Court  of  Com- 
mon Pleas  of  the  County,  or  any  judge  thereof, 
and  thence  to  the  Supreme  Court;  and  on  such 
appeal  the  hearing  shall  be  de  novo."3 

An  appeal  by  an  aggrieved  colored  citizen,  who 
sought  redress  for  what  he  believed  to  be  unjust 
discrimination  on  the  part  of  a  Registration 
Board,  might  go  the  rounds  of  the  Courts.  The 
probability  is,  however,  that  no  colored  man  would 
run  the  risk  of  initiating  such  an  appeal. 

A  similar  arbitrary  power  is  not  bestowed  on 
Boards  of  Registration  in  every  particular.  In 
North  Carolina  all  applicants  whose  ancestors 
were  voters  in  1867,  under  the  "grand-father" 
clause  of  the  Constitution,  are  protected  from  an- 
noyance by  law  in  this  fashion:  "No  registrar 
shall  have  the  right  to  inquire  whether  such  per- 
son can  read  or  write." 4 

The  claim  that  the  results  of  the  Civil  War 
have  been  nullified,  and  the  ideas  which  the  war 
was  supposed  to  have  rendered  obsolete,  are  now 
enthroned  in  the  Government,  is  not  simply  the 

1  Code  of  Laws  of  South  Carolina,  1912.    Vol.  I,  p.  76. 
*  North  Carolina  Statutes,  Revisal  of  1908,  section  4319. 


Page  One  Hundred-ninety-one 

opinion  of  men  in  the  North.  It  is  openly 
acknowledged  by  prominent  Southern  men  who 
make  the  claim  with  much  open  satisfaction. 

On  the  13th  of  April,  1914,  a  Confederate  mon- 
ument was  dedicated  'at  Louisburg,  N.  C.  The 
orator  of  the  day  was  Governor  Locke  Craig. 
"Paraphrasing  the  Classics"  the  Governor  said : 

"Tell  by  this  monument,  and  let  all  the  historians  tell, 
and  let  the  nations  tell  that  the  men  of  Dixie  died  in 
obedience  to  her  law.  Was  it  lost?  Was  heroism  like  that 
ever  lost?  If  we  had  never  won  a  victory,  still  it  was  not 
lost.  I  stand  here  and  tell  you  my  everlasting  gratifica- 
tion to  the  men  of  sixty-one.  Southern  ideals  were  driven 
like  an  exiled  dynasty  from  place  and  power  and  it  looked 
like  they  were  gone  forever.  But  they  have  come  back. 
And  so  it  has  come  to  pass  that  a  Southern-born  man,  a 
Virginia  man,  educated  in  the  red  hills  of  North  Carolina 
has  been  chosen  to  fill  the  Presidential  chair.  He  was 
not  elected  because  he  was  from  the  South,  but  because 
he  had  the  ideals  of  the  South.  And  for  the  first  time 
in  fifty  years,  North  Carolina  has  a  cabinet  officer,  the 
commander  of  the  greatest  navy  that  floats  the  high  seas, 
Josephus  Daniels.  The  head  of  the  most  powerful  com- 
mittee in  the  greatest  deliberative  body  in  the  world,  is 
from  North  Carolina.  *  *  *  As  Governor  I  am  getting 
letters  from  all  parts  of  the  state  offering  to  go  to  Mexico, 
to  fight  for  the  American  flag.  We  love  the  flag,  but 
Dixie's  is  hallowed  by  our  tears."  * 

What  are  the  Southern  ideals  that  were  upheld 
by  the  men  of  sixty-one,  and  which  have  "come 
back?"  They  were  manifestly  the  theory  of 
secession,  and  the  subjugation  of  the  supposed 

*  Raleigh  News  and  Observer,  April  14,  1914.  p.  2. 


Page  One  Hundred-ninety-two 

inferior  race.  The  theory  evidently  never  went 
away,  and  the  subjugation  of  the  negro  politically, 
socially,  and  industrially  is  an  assured  fact,  at 
least  in  the  southern  part  of  the  Republic,  and  is 
making  some  headway  north  of  the  Mason  and 
Dixon  line. 

The  Governor  of  North  Carolina  could  very 
easily  have  enlarged  his  evidence  that  the 
Southern  ideals  are  back  in  the  Government  at 
Washington.  Senator  Simmons  is  not  the  only 
Southern  man  who  is  the  chairman  of  an  import- 
ant Congressional  Committee.  The  House  of 
Representatives  has  fifty-six  Committees.  Thirty 
of  these  committees  have  Southern  chairmen,  and 
with  the  exception  of  the  chairman  of  the  Com- 
mittee on  Appropriations,  the  important  com- 
mittees of  the  House  all  have  chairmen  from  the 
South. 

Passing  to  the  Senate,  we  find  that  the  eleven 
ex-Confederate  states  furnish  chairmen  for 
twenty  of  the  Senate  Committees,  while  the  chair- 
men of  six  committees,  although  representing 
Western  states,  were  born  in  the  South.  Gov- 
ernor Craig  was  well  inside  the  truth  in  his  Louis- 
burg  speech. 

The  fact  that  there  is  really  but  one  political 
party  in  the  South,  plus  the  methods  and  ma- 
chinery of  the  primary  election  laws,  has  helped 
greatly  in  the  political  undoing  of  the  negro.  He 
is  not  wanted,  and,  in  fact,  he  is  not  willing  to  help 
in  the  factional  quarrels  of  the  only  political 


Page  One  Hundred-ninety-three 

party.  The  ruling  habit,  for  safety's  sake,  but 
often  from  choice,  is  for  the  negro  to  keep  away 
from  the  ballot-box,  there  seemingly  being  noth- 
ing better  for  him  to  do,  and  the  negro  has  meekly 
acquiesced  in  his  own  disfranchisement.  Out- 
wardly this  acquiescence  seems  to  be  as  willing 
and  universal  on  the  part  of  the  educated  and  ca- 
pable negroes,  as  it  is  on  the  part  of  the  ignorant 
and  morally  submerged.  It  would  not  be  a  popu- 
lar nor  safe  thing  for  any  group  of  men  black 
or  white,  to  attempt  the  organization  of  a  political 
party  in  the  South  in  opposition  to  the  ruling 
class.  Unmolested,  the  negro  is  a  man  of  peace. 
He  is  not  vindicative,  and  when  he  has  had  a 
chance  he  has  not  returned  evil  for  evil,  nor  at- 
tempted to  work  retaliation  on  his  oppressors. 
That  was  far  from  his  mind  or  manner  in  war- 
time, when  opportunity  to  wreak  vengeance  was 
general,  and  it  is  not  his  temper,  in  the  front 
of  present  conditions. 

It  would  seem  that  the  framers  of  the  Four- 
teenth Amendment  to  the  Constitution  foresaw 
that  reactionary  conduct  might  follow  the  re- 
stored participation  of  the  Confederate  States  in 
the  policies  of  the  country  and  endeavored  to  head 
it  off  by  a  constitutional  provision.  Wise  as  these 
men  were,  they  did  not  see  that  discontent  with 
and  disrespect  for  the  Constitution,  would  be 
fostered  by  responsible  citizens,  in  the  early  days 
of  the  twentieth  century,  or  that  the  North  would 

25 


Page  One  Hundred-ninety-four 

quietly  acquiesce  in  the  nullification  of  the  Re- 
construction Amendment. 

The  events  of  the  last  half  century  which  have 
led  up  to  this  condition,  have  probably  had  no 
parallel  in  the  history  of  the  world.  A  great  war 
was  inaugurated  and  carried  on  in  behalf  of  cer- 
tain ideals,  those  who  fought  for  these  ideals  were 
whipped  in  the  conflict.  Yet  a  little  more  than  a 
half  a  century  after  the  surrender  at  Appomattox, 
the  orator  of  the  vanquished  tells  to  a  waiting 
world,  including  the  victors,  that  the  conquered 
ideals  are  back  as  the  dominant  influence  in  the 
Government. 


DISCRIMINATION  IN  EDUCATION 

The  educational  opportunities  for  the  negro 
children  in  the  South,  especially  in  the  rural  dis- 
tricts, are  meager  and  inadequate.  Provision  for 
such  education  is  lamentably  short  of  the  needs  of 
the  available  number  of  children.  Short  terms, 
in  many  cases  two  or  three  months  in  the  year,  or 
less;  poor  buildings,  with  little  or  no  equipment; 
with  poorly  paid  teachers,  consequently  poorly 
qualified  for  the  work,  make  up  the  indictment 
which  may  be  lodged  against  the  average  South- 
ern state,  in  the  treatment  of  its  colored  children. 

Conditions  in  South  Carolina  are  probably  not 
different  from  those  existing  in  other  states,  and 
may  be  taken  as  a  type  for  the  entire  South,  with 
the  reasonable  supposition  that  they  are  not  bet- 
ter in  the  states  farther  towards  the  Gulf. 

The  following  figures  condense  certain  facts  as 
they  exist  in  South  Carolina : 

Colored         White 
children.      children. 

Number  of  children  of  school  age  in 

state    193,247  167,914 

Value  of  school  property  used  for.  $662,639  $4,789,510 

Amount  paid  by  state  for  education  $313,291  $2,247,981 

Amount  paid  for  education  per  child         $1.87  $13.39  * 

1  The  figures  are  compiled  from  a  statement  la  the  Charles- 
ton News  and  Courier  of  Nov.  13,  1914. 

Page  One  Hundred-ninety-five 


Page  One  Hundred-ninety-six 

An  analysis  of  these  figures  gives  us  this  show- 
ing. The  state  paid  more  than  seven  times  as  much 
to  educate  167,914  white  children,  as  it  did  for  the 
education  of  193,247  colored  children.  There  are 
23,333  more  colored  than  there  are  white  children 
in  South  Carolina,  but  more  than  seven  times  as 
much  property  is  used  to  educate  a  minority  of 
white  children,  as  is  available  for  the  education 
of  a  majority  of  black  children. 

When  we  consider  length  of  term  and  salaries 
of  teachers,  the  inadequacy  of  the  educational 
facilities  for  colored  children  becomes  increas- 
ingly apparent,  and  the  white  children  have  no 
great  opportunities  to  brag  about.  South  Caro- 
lina contains  5,047  public  schools,  2,596  for  white 
and  2,451  for  negroes.  Of  these  schools,  73  white 
schools  were  in  session  not  more  than  40  days, 
and  of  the  negro  schools,  378  were  in  session  40 
days  or  less.  When  the  matter  of  teachers'  sal- 
aries is  taken  into  account,  a  still  better  index  of 
inefficiency  is  given.  There  are  in  the  state  2,156 
colored  schools,  in  which  the  teachers  received 
annual  salaries  of  less  than  $200.  White  schools 
to  the  number  of  544  received  similar  small  sal- 
aries. There  were  239  white  and  612  colored 
schools  taught  in  buildings  not  owned  by  the 
school  district.  In  the  case  of  colored  schools  in 
the  South,  it  is  common  to  house  them  in  old 
churches  and  halls,  owned  by  colored  people,  in 
cases  where  no  school  building  is  owned  by  the 
district. 


Page  One  Hundred-ninety-sevcn 

The  small  number  of  colored  schools  which  pay 
their  teachers  more  than  $200  per  year,  are 
mostly  in  counties  containing  cities,  or  large  vil- 
lages, 24  of  the  number  being  in  Charleston 
County. 

There  are  363  colored  schools  in  the  state  which 
paid  their  teachers  $50  or  less  for  the  time  they 
taught  during  the  year.  In  a  number  of  cases 
the  payment  to  teachers  during  the  school  year 
was  less  than  $20  each.  Of  course  this  means 
for  a  very  short  term  of  40  days  or  less.  There 
seems  to  be  no  general  school  term.  A  certain 
amount  of  money  is  available,  and  the  teacher 
serves  the  schools  for  as  long  or  short  a  period  as 
he  or  she  deems  the  proper  thing. 

The  whole  school  system  both  for  blacks  and 
whites  is  unequal  and  primitive,  as  shown  in  the 
maximum  and  minimum  expenditure  in  the 
various  counties.  The  maximum  per  capita  ex- 
penditure for  white  pupils  was  $36.89  in  Beau- 
fort County,  and  the  minimum  $6.72  in  Horry. 
The  maximum  for  negroes  was  $8.32  in  Charles- 
ton and  the  minimum  92  cents  in  Lee  County.  A 
curious  feature  of  this  exhibit  is  the  fact,  that 
Beaufort  County  where  the  maximum  per  capita 
white  expenditure  was  made,  the  negro  enroll- 
ment in  the  county  is  3,251,  and  the  white  enroll- 
ment is  only  609.  In  Lee  County  where  the  an- 
nual per  capita  expenditure  for  colored  schools 


Page  One  Hundred-ninety-eight 

was  only  92  cents,  the  negro  enrollment  is  nearly 
three  times  as  large  as  the  white  enrollment.2 

Entering  another  field  we  find  the  same  rule 
prevailing.  White  teachers  in  the  state  were  paid 
salaries  aggregating  $1,563,536;  colored  teachers 
in  the  state  received  $313,291.  In  1913,  the  ex- 
penditure for  furniture  and  apparatus  for  the  use 
of  white  schools  amounted  to  $42,287 ;  for  colored 
schools,  $2,283.  In  the  matter  of  libraries, 
whereas  several  thousand  dollars  were  spent  for 
libraries  in  white  schools,  $44.04  were  spent  for 
libraries  in  colored  schools  in  the  entire  state. 

In  the  South,  the  states  levy  a  tax  on  fertilizer 
sold  and  used  in  the  state.  The  proceeds  of  this 
tax  goes  into  the  educational  fund.  In  some  cases 
it  goes  to  the  state  agricultural  and  technical 
schools.  While  the  negro  farmers  and  tenant 
farmers  pay  a  considerable  portion  of  the  fer- 
tilizer tax,  negro  schools  receive  practically  no 
benefit  from  this  fund. 

It  is  a  claim  in  certain  sections  of  the  South, 
that  the  money  spent  for  the  education  of  negro 
children  should  be  limited  to  the  school  tax  paid 
by  negroes.  But  there  are  cases  where  no  attempt 
is  made  to  segregate  the  taxes  paid  by  colored 
men,  purely  for  the  purposes  of  negro  education, 
and  it  is  a  safe  inference  that  in  more  cases  than 


2  The  figures  given  in  the  above  statement  are  compiled 
from  the  "Forty-fifth  Annual  Report  of  the  State  Superinten- 
dent of  Education  of  the  State  of  South  Carolina,  1913. 


Page  One  Hundred-ninety-nine 

one,  the  taxes  paid  by  colored  men  help  educate 
white  children. 

The  enforced  political  disability  of  the  colored 
man  in  the  South,  or  to  put  it  as  Molly  Elliot  Sea- 
well  does,3  the  understanding  that  the  negro  will 
attempt  to  vote  "at  his  peril,"  has  of  course  helped 
hand  all  educational  matters  including  the  educa- 
tion of  the  negro  children  over  to  white  men. 
Even  in  communities  where  the  population  is  pre- 
ponderatingly  black,  no  matter  how  fit  he  may  be, 
no  colored  man  is  permitted  to  serve  on  a  school 
board.  Here  is  a  case  in  point,  pretty  generally 
reported  in  the  Southern  papers  in  April,  1914: 

As  has  already  been  stated,  Beaufort  is  one  of 
the  black  counties  in  South  Carolina.  By  some 
hook  or  crook  a  colored  man  was  placed  on  the 
local  school  board.  Governor  Blease  took  prompt 
action  to  remedy  this  innovation.  At  his  motion, 
the  State  Board  of  Education  passed  a  resolution 
commanding  that  the  colored  man  on  the  Beaufort 
School  Board,  be  discharged,  and  his  place  be 
promptly  filled  by  a  white  man.  The  reason 
given  for  thus  interfering  with  local  self-govern- 
ment was  that  it  is  against  the  policy  of  the  State 
of  South  Carolina,  to  permit  colored  men  to  hold 
public  office.  The  matter  was  simplified  by  the 
prompt  resignation  of  the  negro  member  of  Beau- 
fort's Board  of  Education.  In  dealing  with  the 
dominant  race,  in  matters  where  their  civic  rights 

8  See  page  181. 

are  concerned,   the  negroes   in  the  South  have 
learned  that  discretion  and  submission  are  the 


Page  Two  Hundred 

better  part  of  valor.  In  the  Beaufort  case  there 
was  no  hint  that  the  colored  man  was  not  as  well 
fitted  for  the  service  committed  to  him,  as  were 
his  white  associates  on  the  school  board.  The 
whole  matter  was  a  successful  attempt  to  apply 
the  color  line  in  education. 

The  situation  outlined  above,  shows  why  colored 
schools  in  the  South,  practically  supported  by 
Northern  philanthropy,  should  be  continued  and 
strengthened.  It  is  highly  important  that  the 
mistake  is  not  made  of  giving  all  the  help  to  a 
few  strong,  well-endowed  schools.  The  most  im- 
portant educational  work  being  done  in  the  South, 
is  being  performed  by  local  schools  which  have 
taken  educational  facilities  to  the  neighborhoods 
most  in  need.  These  schools  instead  of  being  for- 
gotten, should  be  constantly  held  in  remembrance 
and  systematically  helped.  In  their  hands  the 
uplift  of  the  Southern  negro  and  his  family  very 
largely  lie. 

There  are  many  colored  schools  in  the  South, 
some  in  distinctly  black  belts,  which  afford  the 
only  tolerable  opportunity  for  negro  education  for 
entire  sections.  These  schools  are  literally  oases 
in  a  desert  of  ignorance.4  It  is  not  uncommon  for 
the  public  school  system  to  provide  good  accom- 
modations for  white  students,  and  make  no  pro- 


*  A  sample  school  of  this  sort  is  the  High  and  Industrial 
School  at  Fort  Valley,  Ga.,  Henry  H.  Hunt,  Principal.  One  of 
the  best  managed  and  most  useful  in  a  large  group  of  similar 
institutions. 


Page  Two  Hundred-one 

vision  for  colored  children,  leaving  them  for  the 
private  schools  to  educate,  or  go  uneducated.  In 
some  cases,  however,  it  should  be  said  that  the 
public  school  authorities  make  contributions  to 
the  support  of  the  private  negro  schools.  Some- 
times the  contribution  is  meager,  and  in  other 
cases  rather  liberal  if  not  adequate. 

We  know  of  a  case,  and  there  are  doubtless 
others.  Where  the  school  district  was  heavily 
bonded  to  build  a  white  high  school.  This  is  in  a 
town  where  the  major  population  is  black,  and 
where  there  are  negro  tax  payers.  While  the 
colored  men  have  to  help  pay  for  this  fine  school 
house,  none  of  their  children  will  be  permitted  to 
cross  its  threshold,  say  nothing  about  being  ad- 
mitted as  students. 


26 


THE  NEGRO  AND  THE  LAND 

Observation  forces  the  conclusion  that  for  the 
great  majority  of  negroes  in  the  South  the  win- 
ning of  recognition  and  respect  is  along  the  road 
of  economic  success.  The  line  of  least  resistance 
for  such  success,  we  believe,  is  as  tillers  of  the 
soil,  not  as  tenant  farmers,  but  as  land  owners. 
The  time  seems  to  us  to  have  arrived  when  the 
same  concern  which  has  rendered  assistance  in 
providing  the  means  of  secondary  and  higher  edu- 
cation might  well  be  employed  in  assisting  the 
colored  people  to  become  independent  land 
owners. 

Tenant  farming  in  the  South,  especially  as  it 
effects  the  negro,  is  not  an  economically  develop- 
ing experience.  The  landlord  assumes  an  atti- 
tude of  almost  ownership  and  arbitrary  control 
over  the  tenant  and  his  family.  He  also  directs 
the  marketing  of  the  tenants'  crop,  mainly  cot- 
ton, and  so  manages  that  the  tenant  is  kept  under 
perpetual  financial  obligation  to  the  landlord  and 
cannot  leave  the  particular  farm  while  that  obli- 
gation exists.  Colored  tenants  change  locations, 
going  from  one  "plantation"  to  another,  not  at 
will,  but  after  a  second  landlord  has  satisfied  the 
claim  of  the  first,  and  then  the  tenant  simply 
swaps  the  holder  of  the  claim  against  him,  which, 

Page  Two  Hundred-two 


Page  Two  Hundred-three 

under  the  practical  system  of  peonage,  simply 
amounts  to  swapping  masters. 

There  are  selfish  economic  reasons  why  the 
average  white  man  does  not  wish  the  negroes  to 
become  land  owners  in  their  own  right.  The 
white  landlord  gets  a  better  income  from  his 
land  operated  by  a  negro  tenant  than  he  would 
to  manage  the  farm  himself  with  hired  labor. 
He  can,  under  these  conditions,  manipulate  part 
of  the  proceeds  of  the  tenant's  crop  into  his  own 
pocket,  and  thus  increase  his  profits.  With  this 
sort  of  manipulation  going  on.  it  may  be  asked, 
why  does  the  negro  not  take  the  bit  in  his  own 
teeth  and  leave  his  leased  farm?  For  various 
reasons,  but  principally  for  the  fact  that  breaking 
the  conditions  of  the  lease  is  construed  as  a 
breach  of  trust,  for  which  the  tenant  may  be  sent 
to  jail  or  to  the  chain  gang.  Besides,  in  a  legal 
battle  in  the  Southern  courts  between  a  negro 
tenant  and  a  white  landlord,  with  the  case  tried 
before  a  white  judge  and  passed  upon  by  a  white 
jury,  the  verdict,  nine  times  out  of  ten,  is  sure 
to  be  in  favor  of  the  white  man,  and  the  negro 
who  would  thus  invoke  litigation  would  simply 
have  his  labor  for  his  pains,  at  the  same  time 
adding  to  his  personal  unpopularity. 

The  following  extracts  are  from  the  so-called 
"Labor  Contract  Law"  of  Georgia : 

Section  715.  PROCURING  MONEY  ON  CONTRACTS  FOR 
SERVICES  FRAUDULENTLY.  If  any  person  shall  contract 


Page  Two  Hundred-four 

with  another  to  perform  for  him  services  of  any  kind, 
with  intent  to  procure  money  or  other  thing  of  value 
thereby,  and  not  to  perform  the  service  contracted  for,  to 
the  loss  and  damage  of  the  hirer,  or,  after  having  so 
contracted,  shall  procure  from  the  hirer  money,  or  other 
thing  of  value,  with  intent  not  to  perform  such  service, 
to  the  loss  and  damage  of  the  hirer,  he  shall  be  deemed 
a  common  cheat  and  swindle,  and  upon  conviction  shall 
be  punished  as  for  a  misdemeanor. 

Section  716.  PROOF  OF  INTENT  TO  DEFRAUD.  Satis- 
factory proof  of  the  contract,  the  procuring  thereon  of 
money  or  other  thing  of  value,  the  failure  to  perform  the 
services  so  contracted  for,  or  failure  to  return  the  money 
so  advanced  with  interest  thereon  at  the  time  said  labor 
was  to  be  performed,  without  good  and  sufficient  cause, 
and  loss  or  damage  to  the  hirer,  snail  be  deemed  pre- 
sumptive evidence  of  the  intent  referred  to  in  the  pre- 
ceding section.1 

This  law  affords  the  initial  weapon  by  which 
white  landlords  and  employers  are  able  to  keep 
negro  tenants  and  laborers  under  subjection.  The 
law  is  rarely  applied  to  any  class  of  people  except 
negroes,  unless  it  be  foreign  laborers,  employed  in 
large  numbers  in  construction  camps.  The  fore- 
going sections  will  show  how  the  conditions  men- 
tioned in  a  previous  paragraph  are  maintained 
pretty  generally  throughout  the  South.  Cases 
brought  under  the  statute  may  fail  in  the  courts, 
but  in  any  event  fear  and  intimidation  have  done 
their  work. 

Wherever  the  colored  man  has  been  able  to  buy 

Tena!  code  of  Georgia,  Vol.  II,  1910,  p.  90. 


Page  Two  Hundred-five 

land,  at  a  fair  price  and  under  comfortable  condi- 
tions of  payment,  he  has  as  generally  succeeded,  as 
do  white  men  anywhere.  In  fact,  there  are  many 
cases  all  over  the  South  where  colored  men  are 
paying  for  their  farms  with  a  load  of  debt  and 
an  interest  charge  which  would  mean  failure  and 
ruin  to  the  average  white  man  in  the  North. 

It  must  be  remembered  that  the  legal  interest 
in  practically  all  of  the  Southern  states  is  eight 
per  cent.  But  colored  men  in  most  cases  possess- 
ing insufficient  security,  are  at  the  mercy  of 
money-lending  sharks.  Under  these  conditions 
they  pay  interest  ranging  from  twelve  to  twenty 
per  cent,  a  perfectly  impossible  thing  in  most 
cases.  This  condition  is  not  entirely  peculiar  to 
the  South.  Such  a  system  of  usury  has  pretty 
generally  existed  where  pioneer  economic  condi- 
tions have  prevailed.  Any  condition  which  in- 
creases the  risk  in  money  lending  will  be  accom- 
panied by  some  scheme  for  exacting  exorbitant 
interest. 

At  the  present  time  the  South  is  the  only  sec- 
tion in  our  country  where  cheap  land  can  be  ob- 
tained. The  manifest  need  is  for  an  arrange- 
ment by  which  colored  men  may  help  themselves, 
enabling  them  to  buy  this  land,  paying  not  more 
than  six  per  cent,  interest  on  the  purchase  price, 
the  claims  being  held  by  men  who  will  be  sym- 
pathetic, tiding  the  negro  owner  over  the  occa- 
sional lean  years  which  are  bound  to  come  when 


Page  Two  Hundred-six 

the  cotton  crop  is  poor.  All  of  this  land  is  bound 
to  increase  in  value,  so  that  the  investment  would 
be  perfectly  safe.  As  matters  now  stand,  most 
colored  men  who  are  in  debt  for  their  farms  are 
constantly  facing  the  fear  that,  even  when  they 
have  canceled  the  major  part  of  their  indebted- 
ness, and  a  hard  year  makes  the  regular  payments 
practically  impossible,  the  grasping  money  lender 
will  come  in  and  take  the  farm,  sending  the  hard- 
working colored  man  and  his  family  adrift  to 
either  repeat  the  experience  over  again  or  go  to 
town  to  reinforce  the  congested  negro  population, 
or  add  to  the  number  of  negroes  classified  as  shift- 
less or  criminal,  or  both. 

It  must  be  said  with  regret  that  very  many 
obstacles  are  being  placed  in  the  way  of  colored 
men  buying  land  at  all.  Men  like  Governor 
Blease,  of  South  Carolina,  are  exhorting  white 
men  to  sell  the  negroes  no  more  land,  on  the 
ground  that  when  the  bulk  of  the  negroes  become 
land  owners,  and  economically  successful,  they 
will  no  longer  "keep  their  places."  "Keeping  his 
place"  means  that  the  negro  shall  be  subject  to 
the  white  man,  not  only  socially  and  politically, 
but  economically;  that  is,  he  shall  become  the 
white  man's  menial — his  servant  at  the  worst; 
an  obliging  and  docile  tenant  at  the  best. 

But  there  are  other  efforts  to  prevent  the  col- 
ored men  from  becoming  land  owners  that  are 
being  fostered  by  men  more  progressive  and  less 
extreme  on  the  race  question  than  men  of  the 


Page  Two  Hundred-seven 

Blease  and  Vardaman  type.  A  discriminating 
land  bill  is  now  pending  in  the  North  Carolina 
legislature.  This  state  is,  in  the  main,  the  most 
up-to-date  of  the  ex-slave  states.  Notwithstand- 
ing this  fact,  it  is  harboring  a  scheme  for  un- 
horsing the  negro  as  a  land  owner,  second  only  to 
the  successful  effort  of  disfranchising  the  entire 
race  as  citizens. 

The  North  Carolina  land  scheme  is  fathered  by 
the  Progressive  Farmer  of  Raleigh,  one  of  the 
leading  agricultural  papers  of  the  South.  It  may 
be  briefly  outlined  as  follows: 

"That  whenever  the  greater  part  of  the  land  acreage 
in  any  given  district  that  may  be  laid  off  is  owned  by 
one  race,  a  majority  of  the  voters  in  such  district  may 
say  (if  they  wish)  that  in  future  no  land  shall  be  sold 
to  a  person  of  a  different  race." 

This,  of  course,  means  enforced  segregation  of 
the  negroes  in  the  rural  sections,  after  the  same 
plan  that  is  being  employed  in  the  towns.  There 
may  be  reasons  why  the  gathering  of  pretty  solid 
colored  communities,  on  their  own  volition,  may 
be  desirable.  It  leaves  them  less  likely  to  molesta- 
tion by  bad  white  men,  and  possibly  being  fright- 
ened from  their  holdings  to  seek  refuge  in  the 
towns. 

One  of  the  principal  reasons  for  the  land 
proposition  is  that  it  opens  the  way  for  the  negro 
to  make  good  as  an  economic  success.  Those  who 
are  trying  to  handicap  him  in  this  particular  are 
open  to  a  valid  charge  of  inconsistency.  They 


Page  Two  Hundred-eight 

find  fault  with  the  negro  because  he  is  Hot  suc- 
cessful and  forehanded  like  the  best  samples  of 
white  men,  and  then  they  propose  to  prevent  such 
forehandedness  by  keeping  the  negro  from  hav- 
ing any  chance  to  make  good  in  the  field  of  respon- 
sible economic  endeavor.  The  friends  of  the 
negro  can  well  afford  to  help  the  members  of  the 
race  to  become  successful  land  owners. 


THE  CONCLUSION  OF  THE  MATTER 

What  must  be  the  right  solution  of  the  race 
situation?  What  hope  is  there  that  fundamental 
justice  will  be  done  the  negro?  In  the  first  place, 
a  re-education  of  public  opinion  regarding  the 
proscribed  race  is  necessary.  The  public  con- 
science, especially  in  the  North,  must  be  aroused. 
That  absolutely  false  reasoning  which  measures 
the  worth  and  possibilities  of  the  whole  race  by 
the  morally  bad  and  economically  shiftless  negro 
men  and  women  should  be  corrected.  The  negro's 
possibilities  must  be  measured  as  they  are  for 
any  other  race,  by  the  best  and  most  successful 
among  them,  and  not  by  the  worst  and  worthless. 

In  the  second  place,  the  supposition  that  the  so- 
called  weaker  race  was  made  inferior  by  the 
Creator  that  its  members  might  become  and  con- 
tinue menials  for  the  so-called  superior  race  needs 
to  be  shown  up  as  a  monstrous  charge  of  injus- 
tice against  the  Almighty.  Such  a  conclusion 
leads  to  the  flippant  assertion  that  the  negro  must 
be  "kept  in  his  place."  That,  of  course,  means 
at  the  bottom  and  under  the  absolute  control  of 
the  white  man.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  any  place  is 
the  negro's  which  he  can  fill,  and  especially  if  he 
can  fill  it  as  well  or  a  little  better  than  anybody 
else.  Any  plan  which  provides  a  fixed  class  and 
an  unalterable  condition  for  any  set  of  men  and 
women,  such  condition  to  pass  from  father  to  son, 

27  Page  Two  Hundred-nine 


Page  Two  Hundred-ten 

is  against  the  spirit  of  modern  civilization  and, 
if  attempted,  will  provide  trouble  for  society  at 
large  in  its  efforts  to  work  out  the  plan. 

It  is  common  nowadays  to  hear,  as  we  did  be- 
fore the  Civil  War,  the  demand  that  the  South 
be  allowed  to  regulate  its  affairs  in  its  own  way. 
As  to  that,  the  South -has  pretty  generally  had  its 
own  way  in  the  matter,  the  North  having  prac- 
tically permitted  the  overthrow  of  the  results  of 
the  war,  and  it  has  not  insisted  that  the  fruits  of 
freedom  should  be  gathered  and  enjoyed  by  the 
enslaved  race.  The  same  type  of  men  who,  in  the 
ante  bellum  days  supported  slavery,  and  after  the 
war  came  sympathized  with  the  South,  are  now 
very  pronounced  in  condemning  any  discussion 
of  the  present  situation  as  a  belated  and  wicked 
revival  of  the  sectional  issue.  But  no  section  of 
a  country  and  no  nation  is  likely  to  be  allowed  to 
manage  its  affairs  in  its  own  way  if  that  way  runs 
counter  to  the  moral  standards  which  the  civilized 
world  sets  up  for  the  humane  regulation  of 
affairs.  If  the  South  had  not  inaugurated  the  re- 
bellion, resulting  in  the  legal  elimination  of 
slavery,  it  is  pretty  certain  that  the  moral  con- 
science of  Christendom  would  have  forced  the 
issue  of  emancipation  upon  the  United  States. 

We  are  not  thus  indifferent  when  inclination 
and  interest  direct  us  to  take  a  hand  in  the  moral 
renovation  of  nations.  We  .insist  upon  the  ob- 
servance of  certain  standards  in  Mexico,  a  direct 
contradiction  of  the  theory  that  sections  and  na- 


Page  Two  Hundred-eleven 

tions  be  allowed  to  manage  their  affairs  in  their 
own  way.  We  grow  red  in  the  face  about  the  sys- 
tem of  peonage  said  to  exist  South  of  the  Rio 
Grande,  while  closing  our  eyes  to  a  similar  sys- 
tem being  established  in  artful  and  indirect  ways 
within  our  own  territory, 

Raising  the  sectional  issue  cannot  be  done  by 
anybody  in  the  clear.  The  woe  belongs  to  those 
who  create  conditions  which  invite  criticism,  and 
not  to  those  who  call  attention  to  the  conditions. 

One  does  not  need  to  travel  far,  or  examine 
very  closely,  to  discover  real  conditions  in  the 
South  which  warrant  the  claim  that  in  the  poli- 
tics of  that  section,  race  prejudice  and  not  char- 
acter and  fitness  are  the  governing  things  in  de- 
termining the  suffrage.  A  few  months  ago  the 
writer  rode  six  miles  in  a  rural  section  of  South 
Carolina  with  a  "one-mule"  l  white  farmer.  We 
simply  hired  the  farmer  and  the  mule  to  carry 
us  to  visit  the  principal  of  one  of  the  most  useful 
of  the  colored  schools  in  the  South.2  The  point 
we  wish  to  make  is  that,  when  it  came  to  educa- 
tion, judgment  and  the  scoring  of  success,  the 
white  one-mule  farmer  is  vastly  the  inferior  of 
the  negro  school  principal;  yet  the  latter  is  dis- 
franchised, while  the  inferior  white  man  holds 
up  his  head  as  a  full-fledged  voter,  having  a  voice 

1 A   farmer  who  owns  or  works   a  small  farm.     Probably 
about  40  acres. 

3  A.  W.  Nicholson,  principal  of  Bettis  Academy,  Trenton, 

b.    C. 


Page  Two  Hundred-twelve 

in  the  government  of  the  common wea  1th  of  which 
he  is  a  citizen,  but  by  right  no  more  so  than  is  his 
dusky  neighbor. 

A  few  weeks  later,  at  the  commencement  of  a 
negro  educational  institution,3  we  heard  an  ex- 
Confederate  Brigadier  make  a  speech.  He  rang 
the  changes  on  the  fact  that  opening  the  door  of 
opportunity  for  men  was  the  moving  spirit  at  the 
center  of  modern  civilization ;  but  he  did  not  say 
a  word  about  the  door  of  civic  opportunity  for 
the  negro,  on  the  other  side  of  which  he  can  alone 
contend  for  his  economic  and  other  rights.  At 
this  commencement  three  colored  men — men  of 
affairs,  too — made  short  speeches,  in  form  and 
finish,  as  good  as  their  white  competitors;  yet, 
when  it  comes  to  the  task  of  making  the  govern- 
ment of  the  state  more  fit  by  having  a  voice  in 
it,  these  men  might  just  as  well  have  never  been 
born,  or  have  made  failures  rather  than  successes 
in  the  work  of  life. 

One  is  sure  to  meet  with  certain  pathetic  inci- 
dents as  he  sees  forceful  and  well-equipped  col- 
ored men  in  their  own  habitat.  If  they  are  speak- 
ing directly  or  indirectly  into  the  ears  of  Southern 
white  men,  they  speak  down  to  white  prejudice. 
For  instance,  it  is  not  uncommon  for  them  to 
throw  a  parenthesis  into  their  remarks  like  this : 
"But  the  colored  men  are  not  in  politics  in  this 
section."  This  assertion  is  supposed  to  be  an 

3  The  National  Religious  Training  School,  Durham,  N.  C. 
Dr.  James  E.   Shepard,  President. 


Page  Two  Hundred-thirteen 

olive  branch  of  peace  offered  to  v/hite  prejudice. 
That  any  self-respecting  colored  man,  who  has  all 
of  the  qualifications  which  the  South  has  pre- 
scribed for  the  suffrage,  finds  it  worth  while  to 
make  a  confession  like  that,  throws  more  light  on 
the  situation  than  pages  of  comment  could  pos- 
sibly do. 

The  point  is  not  whether  the  North  would  be 
any  better  than  the  South  under  the  same  circum- 
stances. We  very  much  doubt  if  it  would.  What 
we  wish  to  enforce  is,  that  the  race  question  is 
not  a  sectional,  but  simply  a  human  one. 

One  may  easily  sympathize  with  both  the 
Southern  white  man  and  the  Southern  negro,  as 
they  face  the  perplexing  race  problem  in  its  worst 
phases;  but  sympathy  becomes  a  diluted  hum- 
bug when  it  holds  in  solution  apology  for  injus- 
tice and  blind  race  prejudice  and  hatred.  What- 
ever may  have  been  the  civic  folly  of  unqualified 
suffrage  in  the  nineteenth  century,  it  cannot  be 
atoned  for  by  qualified  disfranchisement  and  de- 
nial of  privileges  purely  because  of  color  in  the 
twentieth.  That  kind  of  conduct  is  at  variance 
with  the  genius  of  our  institutions  and  with  the 
spirit  of  our  ideals. 

If  it  is  finally  established,  which  God  forbid, 
that  certain  rights  and  privileges  are  denied  to 
a  class  of  men,  not  because  they  are  unfit  to  en- 
joy them,  but  because  of  the  color  of  the  pigment 
in  their  skin,  we  would  be  promoting  a  type  of 


Page  Two  Himdred-foimeen 

political  race  slavery,  as  finally  fatal  to  the  ruling 
as  to  the  subject  class. 

But  the  right  conscience  in  our  National  life 
will  not  permit  these  things  long  to  be.  We  shall 
finally  cease  to  whisper  our  fears  into  the  face 
of  commercial  advantage,  and  to  live  a  lie  because 
of  trade  and  traffic.  Rather  shall  we  shout  our 
hope  for  justice  into  the  face  of  class  and  race 
prejudice,  and  deal  morally,  economically  and 
politically  with  men  as  men  and  not  because  they 
are  white  or  black. 


INDEX 

Abraham  Lincoln;  A  History.  John  J.  Nicolay  and  John 
Hay,  Citations  from,  pages  27,  28,  31,  34,  36,  171. 

Abraham  Lincoln;  Complete  Works,  Citations  from  92. 

Adams,  Charles  Francis,  makes  overtures  to  slave-holding 
interests,  44. 

Aftermath,  The,  chapter  head,  183. 

American  Conflict,  The,  quotations  from,  pages  16,  77,  81, 

',       112. 

Anti-Slavery  Convictions,  Lincoln's  Early,  chapter  head, 

27; 

Anti-Slavery  Sentiment  Before  the  War,  chapter  head,  39. 
Approaching  Emancipation,  chapter  head,  65. 
Arnold,  Isaac  N.,  Member  of  Congress,  on  Lincoln's  Mes- 
sage of  1862,  page  117. 

Beecher,  Henry  Ward,  Criticises  Lincoln,  72. 

Before  the  Carpet-baggers,  chapter  head,  155. 

Bell,  John,  Candidate  for  President,  40;  vote  received  by, 

41. 

Before  and  After  Emancipation,  chapter  head,  109. 
Blease,   Governor,  interferes  in  local   school  government, 

199;  on  selling  land  to  negroes,  206. 
Breckenridge,  John  C.,  Candidate  for  President,  40;  vote 

received  by,  41. 

Brooks,  Preston  S.,  assaults  Charles  Sumner,  22. 
Brown,  William  Garrott,  quotation  from  his  book,  "The 

Lower  South  in  American  History,"  22. 

Carson,  Hampton  L.,  author  of  history  of  constitution,  13. 

Carpenter,  Frank,  extract  from  "Six  Months  With  Lin- 
coln in  the  White  House,"  86-88. 

Clay,  Henry,  on  compromises  of  1850,  18. 

Colonies,  Slavery  in,  10. 

Conciliation,  The  Period  of  Attempted,  chapter  head,  43. 

Confederate  Monument,  inscription  on,  150. 

Congress,  Ninth  Continental,  11;  last  continental,  12. 

Congress  Rebukes  Lincoln,  144. 

Congress  and  Slavery  Before  Emancipation,  chapter  head, 
54. 

Conway,  Moncure  D.,  extract  of  speech  at  Abington, 
Mass.,  73. 

Constitutional  Convention,  12. 

Page  Two  Hundred-fifteen 


Page  Two  Hundred-sixteen 

Constitution,  article  I,  13;  slave  population  basis  of 
representation,  13;  slave  catching,  provision  of,  14; 
slavery,  under  the,  15;  thirteenth  amendment  adopted, 
161;  the  fourteenth  amendment,  175;  never  submitted 
to  by  Southern  States,  181. 

Craig,  Governor  Locke,  of  North  Carolina,  speech  at  Con- 
federate Monument  Unveiling,  191. 

Davis,  Henry  Winter,  on  laws  favorable  to  fugitive  slaves, 
44;  joins  B.  F.  Wade  in  protest  against  Lincoln's 
reconstruction  plan,  144. 

Davis,  Jefferson,  on  union  soldiers  as  criminals,  124. 

Dispatch,  The  Richmond,  Va.,  extract  from,  132. 

Douglass,  Frederick,  statement  as  to  his  personal  treat- 
ment by  Lincoln,  185. 

Douglas,  Stephen  A.,  favors  squatter  sovereignty,  19; 
begins  debates  with  Lincoln,  32;  criticised  by  Lin- 
coln, 34;  candidate  for  President,  40;  vote  received  by, 
41. 

Draft  riots,  New  York,  130;  in  other  cities,  131;  their  pur- 
pose and  effect,  132. 

Dred  Scott  Decision,  24. 

Education,  in  South  Carolina,  table  about,  195;  salaries 
Emancipation,  Lincoln's  first  hint  of,  65;   was  Lincoln's 

own  act,  67 ;  Greeley's  letter  about,  76 ;  Lincoln  argues 

against,   81;   O.   B.   Frothingham   on,   83;   Jefferson's 

reference   to,   91 ;    Lincoln   issues   Proclamation,   93 ; 

opinion's  about,  104;  Democratic  opinion  about,  109; 

Final  action  on,  119. 
Enfranchising  Negroes,  Lincoln  on,  143. 
Enquirer,  Richmond,  Va.,  extract  from,  131. 

of  teachers  in,  196;  length  of  school  terms,  196;  per 

capita  expenditure  for  education,  197. 
Evening  Post,  quotation  from,  133. 

Farming,  tenant  in  South,  202. 

Fertilizer  tax,  disposition  of,  198. 

Fessenden,  Senator,  on  universal  suffrage,  175. 

Following  the  Amendment,  chapter  head,  178. 

Frothingham,  Rev.  0.  B.,  extract  from  sermon,  83. 

Fruits  of  the  War,  in  behalf  of  freedom,  163. 

Garrison,  William  Lloyd,  speech  commending  Lincoln,  137; 

on  Republican  platform,  137. 
Grandfather    clause,   in    Louisiana    constitution,   188;    in 

North  Carolina  constitution,  188. 


Page  Two  Hundred-seventeeu 

Greeley,  Horace,  writes  open  letter  to  Lincoln,  76;  his 
final  estimate  of  Lincoln,  79 ;  reference  to  "constrained 
emancipation,"  55. 

Harlan,  John  M.,  on  the  transfigured  Lincoln,  172. 

Harvey,  Isaac  and  Sarah,  visit  Lincoln,  84. 

Herald,  The  New  York,  extract  from,  132. 

Hunter.  General  David,  issues  general  order  No.  11,  62. 

Hunt,  Henry  A.,  note,  200. 

Invoking  the  letter  of  the  law,  chapter  head,  20. 

Jefferson,  Thomas,  introduces  ordinance  of  1784,  11;  helps 

slavery  extension,  17. 
Johnson,  Andrew,  views  on  validity  of  secession,  151;  his 

plan  of  reconstruction,  156;  is  opposed  by  Congress, 

158. 

Julian,  George  W.,  on  Lincoln  and  Emancipation,  91. 
Just  Before  Sunset,  chapter  head,  160. 

Labor  Contract  Law  in  Georgia,  203. 

Laboring  with  Lincoln,  chapter  head,  70. 

Liberator,  The,  quotations  from,  pages  73,  107,  117,  118, 
137;  criticises  Lincoln's  style,  117. 

Lincoln,  Abraham,  a  head  of  public  sentiment  regarding 
slavery,  9;  idealist  and  prophet,  9;  his  anti-slavery 
convictions,  27;  impressions  of  slavery  in  New  Or- 
leans, 28;  protests  against  slavery  sentiment  in  Il- 
linois legislature,  28;  defeats  Peter  Cartright  for 
Congress,  29;  offers  bill  to  abolish  slavery  in  District 
of  Columbia,  30;  extract  from  letter  to  Joshua  Speed, 
31;  debates  with  Stephen  A.  Douglas,  32;  speech  in 
Cooper  Union,  New  York,  33;  extract  from  Spring- 
field Speech  in  1857,33;  the  "all-slave  all-free"  speech, 
35;  on  marrying  negroes,  36;  speech  on  slavery  in  Dis- 
trict of  Columbia  delivered  at  Freeport,  111.,  37;  on 
slave-holders'  rights,  37;  not  an  abolitionist,  38;  as 
Presidential  candidate  opposed  extension  of  slave  terri- 
tory, 40;  his  vote  for  President  in  1860,  41;  his  first 
Inaugural,  48;  his  first  annual  message,  54;  favors 
colonization  for  blacks,  55;  recommends  compen- 
sated emancipation,  56;  orders  marshall  of  District  of 
Columbia  to  discharge  runaway  slaves  held  in  jail, 
59;  annuls  Fremont's  emancipation  order,  63;  appeals 
to  border  states  to  accept  compensated  emancipation, 
65 ;  submits  first  draft  of  Emancipation  Proclamation, 
66;  emancipation  his  own  act,  67  and  68;  reply  to 
Horace  Greeley,  77;  receives  delegation  of  Chicago 


Page  Two  Hundred-eighteen 

clergymen,  80;  argues  with  the  delegation,  81;  inter- 
viewed by  Ohio  Quakers,  85;  his  statement  to  Car- 
penter about  the  Proclamation,  86  and  87;  waits  for 
the  psychological  moment,  91;  quotes  from  Jefferson, 
91 ;  refers  to  deportation  of  negroes,  92 ;  draft  of 
Emancipation  Proclamation,  93  to  96;  serenaded  at 
White  House  and  responds,  97;  his  message  of  1862, 
114  to  116;  issues  final  Proclamation,  119;  second 
nomination  for  President,  136;  his  mainstay  was  the 
people,  134;  his  last  speech,  145;  his  farewell  speech 
at  Springfield,  165;  his  dream  or  vision,  166;  reads 
from  Shakespeare,  168;  accepts  his  little  son's  advice, 
169;  his  last  inaugural,  169;  letter  to  Thurlow  Weed 
about  second  inaugural,  171;  his  magnanimity,  171; 
as  measured  by  John  M.  Harlan,  172;  his  personal 
attitude  toward  negroes,  185;  his  "ten-per  cent." 
states,  145;  Letter  to  Gov.  Hahn,  of  Louisiana,  142; 
On  Enfranchising  some  negroes,  143;  he  ignores  Con- 
gressional controversy,  144. 

Lincoln  and  Horace  Greeley,  chapter  head,  75. 

Lincoln's  Mainstay  was  the  People,  chapter  head,  134. 

Lovejoy,  Elijah  P.,  foot  note,  23. 

Lovejoy,  Owen,  member  of  Congress,  interviews  with  Lin- 
coln, 89. 

London  Morning  Star,  quotation  from,  126. 

Lower  South  in  American  History,  quotation  from,  22. 

Loyal  Opinion,  chapter  head,  104. 

McClellan,  George  B.,  before  Richmond,  69 ;  nominated  for 

President,  135;  vote  for,  138. 
McClure,  A.  K.,  quotation  about  Greeley,  75;  statement 

about  Lincoln's  anxiety  in  1864,  139. 

Milton,  John,  on  use  of  force,  185. 

More  Incidents  Regarding  Emancipation,  chapter  head,  86. 

National  Anti-Slavery  Standard,  quotations  from,  72,  80, 

84,  105,  107,  111,  135. 
Nicholson,  A.  W.,  note,  211. 
Nullifying  the  Constitution,  chapter  head,  187. 

Peace  Negotiations  Engineered  by  Greeley,  160;  Lincoln's 

note  about,  160. 

Pensions  for  ex-Confederate  Soldiers,  189. 
Personal    Liberty    Laws,    reference   to,    25;    defended   by 

Henry  Wilson,  26;  mentioned  by  Woodrow  Wilson,  21. 
Phillips,  Wendell  criticises  Lincoln,  128. 
Polk,  James  K.,  suggests  treaty  with  Mexico,  17. 


Page  Two  Hundred-nine  teen 

Pomeroy,  Senator,  on  Lincoln's  re-election,  135. 

Proclamation  of  Freedom,  The,  chapter  head,  93. 

Progressive  Farmer,  The,  reference  to,  207 ;  its  negro  land 
scheme,  207. 

Progressive  Party,  its  platform  utterance  on  Confederate 
pensions,  189. 

Registration  Boards  in  the  South,  Arbitrary  power  of,  190. 

Rise  and  Fall  of  Slave  Power  in  America,  quotation  from, 
26. 

Russell,  Earl,  of  England,  criticises  Lincoln's  Proclama- 
tion, 125. 

School  term,  length  of,  196. 

Seawell,  Mollie  Elliott,  on  constitutional  amendments,  181. 

Secession  and  Reconstruction,  chapter  head,  148. 

Shakespeare,  Lincoln  recites  from  Macbeth,  168. 

Shellabarger,  Samuel,  speech  in  Congress  on  States  out 
of  the  Union,  151. 

Shepherd,  Dr.  James  E.,  note,  212. 

Slavery,  the  Confederacy's  Corner-stone,  chapter  head,  49. 

Slavery  in  the  Colonies,  chapter  head,  10. 

Slavery  under  the  Constitution,  chapter  head,  15. 

Slavery  and  the  Army,  chapter  head,  60. 

Slaves  number  covered  by  emancipation,  129. 

South  Carolina,  ordinance  of,  1832,  21. 

Southern  Men  as  Chairmen  of  Congressional  Committees, 

Southern  Ideals,  back  in  the  government,  191. 
192.     ' 

Southern  States  did  not  submit  to  constitutional  amend- 
ments, 181. 

Squatter  Sovereignty  defined,  19. 

Stephens,  Alexander  H.,  speech  before  Georgia  legislature, 
51;  defends  the  Confederacy,  51;  on  slavery  as  the 
Confederacy's  corner-stone,  52. 

Stevens,  Thaddeus,  sums  up  reconstruction  policy,  179. 

Sumner,  Charles,  assaulted  by  Brooks  in  Senate,  22. 

Teachers'  salaries  in  South  Carolina,  196. 

The  Conclusion  of  the  Matter,  chapter  head,  209. 

The  Final  Proclamation,  chapter  head,  119. 

The  Message  of  1862,  chapter  head,  114. 

The  Negro  and  the  Land,  chapter  head,  202. 

The  Proclamation's  Reception,  chapter  head,  99. 

The  Pro-Slavery  Element  in  Evidence,  chapter  head,  130. 

The  Proclamation  of  Freedom,  chapter  head,  93. 

The  Proclamation's  Reception,  chapter  head,  99. 

The  Reconstruction  Amendment,  chapter  head,  173. 


Page  Two  Hundred-twenty 

The  Religiously-minded  Lincoln,  chapter  head,  165. 
Twenty  Years  of  Congress,  by  James  G.  Elaine,  quotations 

from,  pages  45  and  110. 
Two  Kinds  of  Critics,  chapter  head,  124. 

Wade,  Benjamin  F.,  protests  against  Lincoln's  reconstruc- 
tion plan,  144. 

Wilmot,  David,  introduces  proviso,  17. 

Wilmot,  Proviso,  text  of,  17. 

Wilson,  Henry,  on  question  of  Liberty  Laws,  26. 

Wilson,  Woodrow,  quotation  about  Personal  Liberty  Laws, 
21;  statement  about  slavery,  52. 

Working  Men  in  England  support  Lincoln,  127. 


